Wildcats win 14 events at Wes Kittley Invitational

Complete Results
 

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ABILENE – Abilene Christian's men's track and field team won 11 of 19 events, and standout thrower Kayla Melgar, junior from Tempe, Ariz., added to her ACU record in the hammer throw to highlight the Wildcats' performances here Saturday at the annual Wes Kittley Invitational at Elmer J. Gray Stadium.

Coach Lance Bingham's men's team swept both relays with season-best times and also won the 100, 200, 400 and 800 in competition with NCAA Division I teams from Texas Tech of the Big 12 and Incarnate Word of the Southland Conference.

In the field events, the Wildcats captured the high jump, triple jump and three of the four throwing events in Division I here.

The relay teams ran 40.65 in the 400-meter relay with two freshmen and two sophomores, and the 4x400 relay team wrapped up the running events with a nice 3:09.01 – Abilene Christian's best performance in the 4x400 relay since 2009.

Also competing in the Kittley Invitational in another men's division were teams from NCAA Division II, NAIA and NJCAA. 

Other winners from the ACU men's team here in Division I were freshman Le'Gari Daniels in the 100 (10.71), sophomore Ryan Linton in the 200 (21.22), sophomore Blaze Brownlow in the 400 (47.24) and junior Ryan Cleary in the 800 (1:53.41).  Cole Palka won the high jump, and Noah Herring won the triple jump.

In the throwing events, Kai Schmidt won the shot put (56 feet, 9.25 inches), Morgan Knight won the hammer throw (167-3) and Ryan Simmons won the javelin throw (165-11).

Five stadium records in men's events were set in new Elmer J. Gray Stadium in the 100, steeplechase, 400 hurdles, long jump and javelin throw by other athletes competing here Saturday.

The Wildcat women's team won three of 19 events here in Division I, including Melgar's record-setting effort of 180-3 (54.95 meters) in the hammer throw to erase her one-week-old ACU standard set at TCU last weekend.  She also had a throw of 54.94 (also 180-3) here Saturday to give her two throws longer than her mark of 54.82 (179-10) in Fort Worth.

She also had a record-setting discus throw of 55.51 (182-1) at TCU.

Other wins by the ACU women here Saturday in Division I came in the 1,500 by senior Michaela Hackett with 4:33.10 and in the javelin throw by junior Reagan Mabery with 134-1 on her final throw of the competition.

Five stadium records were also established by women in Saturday's meet by other athletes.  Several members of NCAA Division II, NAIA and NJCAA were also competing in another division for women.  The new stadium records in the women's competition were 100, 200, 400 relay, triple jump and high jump.

Among the women's stadium records was a very fast 22.04 (0.5 wind) by Nigerian Olympian Blessing Okagbare, former NCAA Division I champion in the 100 and long jump from Texas-El Paso.  She won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  At the Commonwealth Games in 2014, she was champion in the 100 and 200, and at the IAAF World Championships in 2013 she was runner-up in the long jump and third in the 200.

The 22.04 is believed to be her personal best in the half-lap and an early-season women's world leader in the 200 according to latest marks reported by IAAF.