Texas State claims a dozen wins at Charles Austin Invitational

Texas State took home 12 first-place finishes and posted five top-10 school marks while hosting the Charles Austin Invitational over the weekend at the Bobcat Track & Field Complex.

“The great thing is we’ve been working hard, pretty much working through this meet to prepare ourselves for the postseason,” director of track and field John Frazier said in a statement. “And to be at a point where we’re getting PRs and still improving after hard work in the weight room and hard work on the track, I feel really good where our team is right now.”

The team walked away with four gold medals after the first day of the meet on Friday. Senior thrower Alyssa Wilson won the women’s hammer throw, tossing for 70.13 meters. Senior Anayah Washington took first place in the women’s long jump, leaping for 6.05 meters. Freshman distance runner Megan Ombres crossed the finish line first in the women’s 1,500-meter race in a personal-best time of 4:52.08 and senior distance runner Justin Botello won the men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 15:52.83.

Saturday saw the maroon and gold claim eight more victories. Wilson continued her dominance in the throwing events, as her 17.41-meter throw in the women’s shot put ranked second in school history and sixth-best in the country and her 55.55-meter throw in the women’s discus was the third-best in program history. Junior Katherine Stuckey picked up another win in the field, taking the women’s high jump at 1.67 meters.

Sophomore Luize Opola won the heptathlon with 4,825 points, picking up a personal-best in the 100-meter hurdles along the way at 14.95 seconds. Texas State’s sprinters showed out as well, as senior Sedrickia Wynn won the women’s 100-meter dash, clocking in at a personal-best 11.79 seconds and sophomore Lee-Anne Blake took the women’s 800 meters with a time of ​​2:07.41.

The men’s 4x400-meter relay team of sophomores Brian West, Taahir Kelly and Avery Veiseh and junior Dominick Yancy won the event with a time of 3:08.78. And both of the Bobcats’ 4x100-meter relay teams made school history. The men’s side, made up of juniors Bervensky Pierre, Yancy and Daniel Harrold and senior Ashton Callahan, tied the program record and took second place in their race at 39.76 seconds. And the women’s side, made up of Washington, senior Christine Irving, sophomore Kiana Rollins and Wynn, broke the school record at 44.94 seconds.

“With some health issues, we’re finally able to put together relay teams,” Frazier stated. “We’re still beat up with our women’s 4x400-meter (team), but we’ll be ready when the time comes. I’m very happy, especially with the fact they were running amongst a small field.”

Texas State will head north to Waco this weekend to compete in the Michael Johnson Invitational at Baylor on April 22-23.