LUBBOCK, Texas — The Abilene Christian track and field team competed well in a field of top Division I, Division II and junior college teams in the Corky Classic held in the Sports Performance Center at Texas Tech over the weekend.
The highlight of the meet was a 1-2 finish by the Wildcats in the men's 3K run. The smooth-running
Andruw Villa took control of the race at the midway point and finished with a personal-best time of 8:23.45.
Mark Barajas used a torrid finish over the final 200 meters of the race to move from fourth place to second – running just off his personal best with a time of 8:25.85.
Other highlights from the meet during the Friday portion of the meet include:
- Rhet Punt finishing fifth in the weight throw with a mark of 62-0.5/18.90m. Rylan Smart competed for the first time since an injury scuttled his outdoor 2025 season by finishing 11th in the weight throw with a mark of 54-2.25/16.53m.
- In the men's 800, Benjamin Castro finished in 12th with an indoor personal best of 1:52.34; Vincent Luffey was in 14th with a 1:53.15; and freshman Evan Martin landed in 17th with a time of 1:54.16. Luffey would complete the first day of the Corky Classic finishing sixth in the Men's "B" 3K run, with a personal best of 8:56.14.
- Both Miguel Hall and Canaan Fairley progressed to the semifinals in a huge field in the 60 hurdles – Hall finishing 14th with a time of 7.99 and Fairley an 8.08.
Besides the lone ACU victory during the meet in the men's 3K run, other highlights from day two of the Corky Classic include:
- A fifth-place finish for Chloe McLellan in the women's 3K run with a personal best time of 10:24.32
- In the 1000-meter run, freshman Evan Martin finished in 10th place with a time of 2:27.42 and Vincent Luffey placed 17th with a time of 2:30.32. For Luffey, it was his third distance race in a 24-hour period.
- In the women's 600-yard run, ACU put three runners in the top 15, with Emma Santoro in 11th (1:23.99), Anna Vyn just behind her in 12th (1:24.20) and Madelyn McFadden finishing in 14th (1:24.97).
- Finishing the women's events, the ACU 4x400 relay composed of Anna Vyn, Madelyn McFadden, Gracee Whiteaker and Emma Santoro finished in 15th place with a time of 3:49.96 – the top 400-meter split of 55.16 coming from Santoro on the anchor leg.
- Day 2 of the meet finished with the men's 4x400 relay where ACU finished in 18th place with a time of 3:16.19, featuring the quartet of Jaylen Thomas, Canaan Fairley, Ryan McMeen and Ethan Krause.Â
The Wildcats return to Lubbock on Friday, Jan. 23 to compete in the Stan Scott Invitational before heading East to compete in Houston and College Station, Texas over the coming weeks.
Head Coach
Miles Smith:
"I think this weekend yielded a lot of productivity - our kids performed well for the first meet coming back from the Christmas break. I'm really proud of the way the distance crew performed. Their maturity and experience is starting to shine. It was important for us to test our mettle against the nation's best and we got the opportunity to do that this weekend. We have a very young team that needs to gain the experience. There's work to be done, but overall I am pleased with what I saw. Now, our goal is to stack quality reps and competition on top of this foundational opening meet, and we are always looking forward to the next meet."
