McMeen Wins First at Stephenville Meet

Friday, April 17

Stephenville, Texas

Abilene Christian

Joe Gillespie Invitational

Ryan McMeen runs the hurdles at the 2026 Wes Kittley Invitational

Photo by: Sarah Eunyoung

4/20/2026 9:20:00 AM | Track & Field

By: Don Garrett

STEPHENVILLE, Texas - For the second weekend in a row, the Abilene Chrsitian track and field team competed at a meet cut short by bad weather. The weather in Stephenville impacted all of Saturday's events, eventually cutting the meet short altogether.

The only first place finish came from redshirt freshman, Ryan McMeen, who ran a new personal best time of 52.04 in the 400 hurdles – a time that kept him ranked #1 in that event on the WAC performance list. Second-place finishers for ACU included Miguel Hall in the 110 hurdles (also running the 400 hurdles in a new personal best time of 54.37); Mark Barajas in the 5000 meter run with a new outdoor personal best of 15:15.31; and Vincent Luffey in the 800 in a time of 1: 51.79.
Other notable performances:

Freshman Evan Martin ran his first outdoor 800 for ACU in a time of 1:52.56, finishing in 4th place. For the women, Marelyn McFadden finished in 3rd in a time of 2:15.12 in her first outdoor 800 of the season
In the triple jump, freshman Jaeden Thomas finished 5th with a season best jump of 39-6.5/12.05, a new personal best to move to #6 on the WAC performance list. For the men, Donovan Ramirez placed 3rd with a outdoor personal best of 48-8.75/14.84m, which moved him to #5 on the WAC performance best
Natalie Poe placed 3rd in the100 hurdles with a personal record time of 14.69
In the 200, Chianel Asoburuenwu placed 7th in the women's race in a time of 24.15, which placed her #7 on the WAC performance list. On the men's side, freshman Abraham Olufemi-Dada placed 5th in a time 21.46 in his first race at that distance this year.
In the only relay run on Saturday for ACU (all of the 4x400 relays were canceled at the end of the meet), the women placed 2nd in the 4x100 relay in a time of 45.98 with a relay composed of three freshmen (Lauren Foxworth Kee'Lani Whitlock, and Darinasia Taylor) anchored by transfer Chianel Asoburuenwu.

ACU will travel to Waco next to compete in the Michael Johnson Invitational, one of the top invitational track meets in the southwest, on Friday and Saturday, April 24-25.