Abilene Christian
Southland Conference Indoor Championships
Wildcats back in Birmingham for Southland Indoors
2/27/2021 9:12:00 AM | Track & Field
For the Wildcats this will be only their second indoor meet of the season. They last competed as a team on Jan. 16, while at the end of January multi-athletes Megan Kirby and Jonathan Ply each competed at Texas Tech. ACU was to compete once more in Lubbock on Feb. 19, but that week's arctic cold snap prevented the team from being COVID tested on time.
The Wildcats used this past week to train at their home facility.
"We are all really excited to compete at conference," said head coach Jerrod Cook. "Training has been going really well for the whole team and everyone is eager to compete after a long time span from our last meet. It's hard to say what will truly happen this week since many schools have been limited to just one or two meets. As always though, the performance list doesn't matter when you get to the meet. The only thing that matters is what you do at the conference meet. We are looking forward to some great performances across the board for our team."
ACU's men's and women's teams each placed third at last year's championship. The men scored 64 points through 17 events, and the women accumulated 63.
ACU won two of its three gold medals in the shot put. Southland Conference Indoor Freshman of the Year Tyler Richardson reached a distance of 17.11 meters (56 feet-1.75 inches) on his sixth and final attempt to give the Wildcats their second shot put champion in as many years (2019, Kai Schmidt).
In the women's shot put, junior Annina Brandenburg led the competition from wire-to-wire as no one in either flight would top her opening toss of 15.16 meters. She broke her school record on her third attempt, hitting 16.33m (53-07.00), and for the moment owns the NCAA's 27th-best mark.
Another school record was broken by Kirby in the pentathlon as she totaled 3,781 points with PRs coming in the shot put (11.18m / 36-08.25) and 800m (2:25.93). Her combined efforts raised her lifetime best by 165 points and surpassed Jessica Withrow's decade-old varsity record of 3,653 from the NCAA DII Championships in Albuquerque.
ACU jumped from sixth to third place in the men's standings thanks to their second-straight win in the 1,600-meter relay (3:10.41). The Wildcats grabbed the lead during Ryan Linton's second leg and continued to extend their advantage with quality efforts from Blaze Brownlow and Avery Williams.
ACU has won the 4x400-meter relay four times since the 2018 outdoor championships in San Antonio, and five times since 2016 outdoors.
The 2021 Southland Indoor Track & Field Championships will be streamed on the Southland Digital Network. Link to video and live results can be found on the Championship Central page.
Sunday's field events are scheduled to begin with the finals portion of the women's pole vault at 1:30 p.m. and will conclude with the men's high jump finals at 5:30 p.m. Opening-day running events begin with the women's 5,000m finals at 12 p.m., immediately followed by the men's 5,000m finals event at 12:30 p.m. Day one will conclude with the women's distance medley relay (DMR) at 6:20 p.m., followed by the men's DMR final at 6:50 p.m.
Monday's finals action begins at 10 a.m., with the 60m hurdles portion of the heptathlon, one of three events in the multi event, which will be finalized that afternoon with the 1,000m run. In addition to the women's high jump, men's and women's shot put and triple jump will serve as Monday's lone field events. Monday's running event finals open with the women's 60m hurdles at 11 a.m. and conclude with the men's 4x400m relay at 2:50 p.m.
Reigning men's team champion Southeastern Louisiana aims for a title defense after topping the leaderboard with 99 points at the 2020 championships. The Stephen F. Austin women are on the hunt for their third consecutive team championship, and have a conference-best 10 team titles, after racking up 138.75 points to take last year's championship.
For athletes that achieve qualifying marks, or have done so throughout the 2021 indoor season, the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships will be hosted in Fayetteville, Ark., at the Randal Tyson Center, March 11-13.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators will not be permitted at the 2021 Southland Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Players Mentioned
