ACU Travels to Stephenville for Joe Gillespie Invitational

Friday, April 17

Stephenville, Texas

Abilene Christian

Joe Gillespie Invitational

Abraham Olufemi-Dada runs in the 2026 Wes Kittley Invitational

Photo by: Sarah Eunyoung

ACU Travels to Stephenville for Joe Gillespie Invitational

4/15/2026 6:00:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Don Garrett

With the WAC Championships now just a month away, the Abilene Christian track and field team heads to Stephenville in a meet that features the two other WAC teams from Texas, host Tarleton State and UT Arlington. The meet also includes Division II powerhouse Angelo State, plus former Lone Star Conference foe, Midwestern State; Division III Schreiner; and junior colleges Ranger College and North Central Texas College. The Wildcats will use this weekend to rest the ACU throws crew, who have enjoyed tremendous success this year.

This meet will feature several events that will help in predicting how the WAC championship will look in a few weeks. Some of those events include:

Women's 100 – freshman Kee'Lani Whitlock will run in the fast section of this event again several current and former All-Americans
Men's 100 – Ethan Krause will run his first 100 of the outdoor season, joined by Abraham Olufemi-Dada (#4 in the WAC) and Tristan Smalls in his first race of the season for ACU
Women's 200 – Chianel Asoburuenwu will run her first 200 of the outdoor season and will be in the fast section with the #1 D-1 100 runner in the nation – Victoria Cameron from Tarleton
Men's 200 – both transfer Durrell Collins and freshman Abraham Olufemi-Dada will run in the fast section in this race
Women's 400 – Emma Santoro will run her first outdoor 400 outdoors, joined in the fast section by freshman Morgan Morris
Men's 400 – Nickens Lemba will run his first outdoor 400, joined by Durrell Collins in the fast section
Men's 800 – Evan Martin will debut outdoors in this race, joined by Vincent Luffey, who is already ranked #7 in the WAC at 800 meters
Women's 1500 – both Chloe McLellan and Lola Buentello will run in the fast section
Men's 1500 – Andruw Villa will make his outdoor season debut in the fast section
Women's 5000 – freshman Saylor Stevenson, Hannah Kasper, and Hadley Phillips will run their first race at this distance this outdoor season
Men's 5000 – redshirt freshman Matthew Engle will open his first ACU outdoor season in this race, with both Mark Barajas and Mikhail running their first race outdoors at 5000 meters outdoors
Women's 100 hurdles – Hana Banks will run in the fast section again the top-ranked hurdler in the WAC, Malak Rashwan from Tarleton State
Men's 110 hurdles – this race will look very much like the WAC finals as Wildcats Miguel Hall (ranked #2 in the WAC) and Canaan Fairley (ranked #6 in the WAC) square off against Caterrin Cox of Tarleton State, currently ranked #1 in the WAC
Men's 400 hurdles – Ryan McMeen, ranked #1 in the WAC in this race, will compete against two Tarleton State hurdlers ranked just behind him
Women's 4x100 relay – ACU is ranked #1 in the WAC and will run against a Tarleton relay that will be anchored by the current top-ranked 100 runner in D-1, Victoria Cameron
Men's 4x100 relay – ACU, which has already run the fastest time in this relay in 5 years, will go head-to-head with Tarleton and Angelo State (#6 in D-2)
Men's 4x400 – ACU, needing a solid race to move up in the WAC performance list, will run against Angelo State, the top-ranked team in D-2
Women's long jump – freshman Halle Gunter will compete with 2-time All-American Prestina Ochonogor, from Tarleton
Men's long jump - Horatio Brooks, currently ranked #3 in the WAC will compete against the 2026 D-1 National Indoor Champ, Lokesh Sathyanathan from Tarleton
Men's triple jump – freshman Arthur Jenkins (ranked #2 in the WAC) and Donovan Ramirez (#5 in the WAC), will jump against WAC #1 ranked Abisayo Gbakino from UTA and Johnathan Rodgers, from Tarleton (#4 in the WAC)
ACU will also have heptathletes Natalie Poe, Nele Huth, and Skyla Riedel competing in select events

The meet will kick off on Friday with field events getting underway at 1 p.m. with the javelin throw and running starting at 5 p.m. with the 200. On Saturday, the field events start with the hammer throw at 8 a.m. and the running commences at 11 a.m. with the 100 hurdles for the women and 110 hurdles for the men.