TXST TRACK AND FIELD
The Texas State Women’s Track and Field team brought home the 2025 Sun Belt Indoor conference championship, winning their first indoor title since 2019.
Junior Taejha Badal, who won the 200-meter dash and was a part of the 2024 Sun Belt Outdoor conference championship winning team, was excited to bring home another title for the Bobcat Track Program.
“I’m super grateful to be able to do this, especially with the team that we have this year,” Badal said. “It’s exciting every time. It’s the best experience being able to watch each other all push ourselves and accomplish things we didn’t expect we did. Everyone [is setting a new personal record] and rising to the occasion in order to win a championship, like we did this week.”
Head Coach John Frazier was proud not only of the team for winning another championship but the Bobcats.
“The great thing [about] being able to repeat right away was [it is] a testament to hard work and dedication to the athletes,” Frazier said. “The best thing is we had such a young team. We only lost maybe three young ladies off of that team and then we brought in young ladies that were able to score points and so overall, it feels really good.”
Junior thrower Melanie Duron won the Sun Belt title in the shot.
“This one means a little more,” Duron said. “The road that I went through, it felt different. It was really surreal.”
At the start of the indoor season, Frazier changed the Bobcats routine.
“I tried something different,” Frazier said. “Usually, we get out of school the first week of December, sometimes the second week. So we were bringing back athletes early, banking [on the fact that] they didn’t train over the break.”
We spent a lot of money, we went to two extra meets, and then we went to the championship, whereas this year I tried something different. We had three competitions before the Sun Belt competition, athletes were firing on all cylinders, and I think it worked out well for us.”
Though Frazier puts more focus on the outdoor season due to athlete burn out, the change in strategy for the indoor season allowed the Bobcats to take home the title. “Moving forward, like I said, we consider ourselves an outdoor team where I think that allows athletes to not get burned out,” Frazier said. “We went every other week, which allowed athletes to get proper rest, stay on top of their studies and then that extra week was time to work so that we can get better from what we learned from our previous competition. So just having more of a scientific approach really helped us.”
In the week leading up to the conference meet, the team met up trying to figure out how they were going to capture the title.
“It’s not something that we’ve done in a long time,” Badal said. “Going into the conference meet, we were all sitting at the training room and circling and tallying up how many points we would get and how good of a chance we had.
Top, Melanie Duron begins to throw the shotput. Duron took first place and will compete at nationals. Below, Precious Okougbodu jumps into the pit during the triple jump competition. Photo submitted by Texas State Athletics
We knew that if we all showed up, it would be possible. We were just trying and hoping that everything turned out the way it needed to.”
Another conversation the Bobcats had was how they needed to be in the right mental state and have the confidence to perform at their best in conference.
“We had a lot of talks as a team with the jumpers, throwers and runners,” Duron said. “We had a meeting before the meeting about the mental state. We are all able to do great things, but if your mental state isn’t good, having mental blocks, doubting yourself, the performance isn’t going to be there. As a captain, that is one thing that I preached to my girls. I tell them ‘You have the talent. You are here for a reason.’” Going into her 200-meter race, Badal felt the nerves and the pressure to give the Bobcats as many points as possible.
“I was super nervous,” Badal said. “I knew that I would have to score a certain amount of points, and I would have to rise to the occasion also. So I was nervous to do my part and just hoping everybody else was doing their part.
That’s kind of the feeling going into the meet, cause we knew we had a chance.”
Despite the nerves and the pressure, Badal pushed through it all to bring home the gold medal with a time of 23.37, putting the junior second in the Texas State record books for fastest indoor 200-meter race time.
Duron also brought home the gold medal, taking first place in the shot-put with a throw 18 feet, 21 inches. The throw also set new indoor track records at Texas State, the Sun Belt Conference and the Sun Belt Conference Meet along with sending Duron to the NCAA National Indoor Championships.
In the two days of competition, Texas State scored 108 points ahead of Southern Miss’ 93 points.
The Bobcats will start their outdoor season at home with the Charles Austin Classic. The twoday competition will take place March 21-22.
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Junior Taejha Badal awaits the starting pistol during the Sun Belt Track and Field Indoor Championships. Badal won gold in the 200-meter run. Photo submitted by Texas State Athletics
High jumper Chinenye Uzoh celebrates with assistant coach Kendall Gustafson Filip during the High Jump competition. Photo submitted by Texas State Athletics
