COLLEGE STATION, Texas
- After losing a recent weekend meet to weather, the Abilene Christian track and field team stormed back with numerous personal and season bests at the Charlie Thomas Invitational in a field that featured Division I schools from nine different conferences. The meet was spread over two days and the Wildcats got right to work with a school record on day one.
FRIDAY
- Nele Huth got the meet going with a new school record in the women's pentathlon. She placed fifth overall (the third collegian) and scored personal bests in all five events – 60H (9.01); HJ (5-3.75/1.62m); SP (41-8.5/12.72m); LJ (18-1.5/5.52m); 800 (2:24.58) – to beat her previous all-time best by over 450 points with a school-record total of 3,847 points. Natalie Poe also scored a personal best of 3,564 points, with personal bests in two events – SP (33-8/10.25) and 800 (2:22.26).
- Purdue transfer Nickens Lemba ran the first open 400 in his Wildcat career, placing 17th in a time of 48.78.
- Hannah Kasper finished third in the women's 5K run with a personal-best time of 18:31.75.
- Andruw Villa won the men's 5K run to finish the evening with a huge personal best of 14:09.54, a time that puts him atop the WAC performance list in the event.
SATURDAY
- In the first event of the day, Rhet Punt finished fourth in the men's weight throw with a season-best toss of 65-2.25/19.87m to move him to the No. 2 spot on the ACU all-time list for the event.
- Canaan Fairley finished day 1 of the men's heptathlon in eighth place with a personal best of 39-11.5/12.18m in the shot put. On day 2 of the heptathlon, he had personal bests in two of the three events – PV in 13-9.25/4.20m and the 1000 meter run in 2:44.86 to work his way up to fifth place (the second collegian). His total points of 5,366 points tied his previous best.
- In the men's mile, Vincent Luffey finished 10th overall with a personal-best time of 4:09.17.
- The women's shot put produced two career bests – Mariana Van Dyk finished in ninth with a throw of 46-11/14.30m and freshman Ciara Tilley was in 11th with season-best throw of 46-0/14.02m.
- The women's 800 saw Emma Santoro place 13th overall (11th collegian) in a personal-best time of 2:11.40 and freshman Anna Vyn was close behind in 15th with a season-best run of 2:12.55
- The men's 800 was also successful as Benjamin Castro placed seventh in a career-best time of 1:50.20 and freshman Evan Martin was in 10th in a time of 1:51.73.
- Freshman Saylor Stevenson finished in ninth place in the women's 3000-meter run in a time of 10:19.56. On the men's side, Mark Barajas finished fourth in the 3K run with a time of 8:24.71, just a few seconds off his best time of the year
- To finish the evening, the women's 4x400 finished fourth in the third section of the finals and 12th overall in a time of 3:46.93 – the best time for the relay since 2024.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats head to Lubbock for Texas Tech's Jarvis Scott Invitational, a two-day meet on Feb. 13-14 which will feature schools such as Clemson, Oregon, Wisconsin and the Air Force Academy.
Coach Miles Smith: "
The goal for our week was momentum, and I think we got plenty of that. Our crew stepped up big this weekend. I'm really glad that we were able to perform after such a long layoff. Our athletes were definitely chompin' at the bit. I'm especially glad to see us improve our WAC standings in several events. I can't wait to see what the remainder of the season holds as we gear up for WAC Indoor Championship."
