Abilene Christian
Southland Conference Indoor Championships
Wildcat Track and Field Starts Southland Indoors Sunday
2/23/2019 8:31:00 PM | Track & Field
ABILENE – Abilene Christian Track and Field heads to the Birmingham CrossPlex for the sixth consecutive February to compete at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships. Multi events begin Sunday at 8:30 a.m. The first running events start at noon with the 5,000-meter run, and the first field event – women's weight throw – will be contested at 1 p.m.
Monday's schedule is expected to last from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
In five previous appearances at Southland Indoors, the men's best showing as a tie for fifth place in 2015 (70 points) while the women received runner-up honors in 2016 with 112.5 points. And last time in Birmingham with a number of redshirts on both sides, the men placed ninth with 39.0 points and the women were fourth with 70.5 points.
This week, however, each team appears to be at full strength as fourteen Wildcat women and 19 men are ranked among the league's top-10 performers based on previous efforts from this indoor season.
ACU definitely possesses its most depth in the throws with nine seniors slated to take part in the shot put, weight throw or both.
Senior Kai Schmidt and classmates Morgan Knight, Josh Hunter and Ryan Simmons are respectively ranked No. 1, 2, 6 and 10 in the shot put, while Knight leads a Wildcat quartet in the weight throw with a No. 2 Southland ranking. He is joined in this event by No. 7, 8 and 9-ranked throwers McKennon Cecil, Hunter and sophomore Thomas Wilson.
The women throwers also could easily post a podium sweep. Senior Kayla Melgar and sophomore Annina Brandenburg are second and fourth-ranked in the shot put, and the weight throw will showcase school record holder and conference No. 1 Lonnie Smith along with second-ranked Taylor Posey and fourth-ranked Melgar.
The Wildcats' deepest running event is the men's 400m dash. Junior Avery Williams is the fastest Southland Conference runner in this event with a time of 47.58 seconds, and he'll likely be joined in this race by sophomore teammates Jared Williams and Blaze Brownlow. Look for these competitors also to compose 3/4 of the 4x400-meter relay, which last year placed second with a time of 3:15.15.
Avery Williams additionally could score points in the 200m, while in the distance events look for senior Ryan Cleary to post low times and high scores in the mile Sunday and 3K Monday. The Prosper, Texas native is currently ranked second in each race with respective times of 4:10.60 and 8:19.33.
The women's team remains strong in the distances and could claim multiple scorers in the mile, 3K and 5K with Briahna Gerlach, Carnley Graham and Hannah Marut leading the way.
One other big area of interest on the track is the 60-meter hurdles. The Wildcats last year were shutout in this event, but this week claim the No. 7 and 10th-ranked hurdlers on the men's side in the freshman duo of Jamal January and Harrison Manuel, and the No. 6 hurdler on the women's side – sophomore Megan Kirby.
ACU doesn't have anyone ranked in either of the horizontal jumps, but sophomore multi-athlete Riley Ellis is currently No. 2 in the high jump while freshman Zoe Spinn is No. 3 on the women's side. Ellis and Kirby also should be the Wildcats' leading scorers in the pentathlon and heptathlon, respectively.
Men's Individual Southland Conference Champions (2)
2015: Rosen Daniel – 200m (21.32)
2015: Daniel Block – 800m (1:50.01)
Women's Individual Southland Conference Champions (9)
2014: Reyare Thomas – 60m (7.45)
2014: Reyare Thomas – 200m (23.73)
2015: Kimone Green – 400m (55.24)
2015: Kimone Green – 400m (54.64)
2016: Alexandria Hackett – 5000m (16:39.24)
2016: Kenzie Walker – Pole Vault (13-01.50)
2017: Michaela Hackett – 3000m (9:30.75)
2017: Michaela Hackett – 5000m (16:41.57)
2017: Lonnie Smith – Weight Throw (58-09.25)
Women's Championship Record Holder (1)
2014: Reyare Thomas – 200m (23.73)
Men's Newcomer of the Year (1)
2015: Rosen Daniel
Women's Outstanding Track Performer (1)
2017: Michaela Hackett
Men's Year-By-Year Team Championship Standings
2014: 46.0 (6th)
2015: 70.0 (T5th)
2016: 59.0 (6th)
2017: 29.0 (8th)
2018: 39.0 (9th)
Women's Year-By-Year Team Championship Standings
2014: 25.0 (9th)
2015: 69.0 (4th)
2016: 112.5 (2nd)
2017: 55.0 (5th)
2018: 70.5 (4th)
Players Mentioned
