Track & field competed in the 44 Farms Team Invitational at E.B. Cushing Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
20 Roadrunners earned both personal and season bests at College Station, though none shone brighter than freshman Mia Lien and junior O.J. Ruiz. The pair earned top-three marks in their respective events and broke both season and personal best records in the process.
Lien was one of three ‘Runners to compete in the heptathlon but raking in top-10 finishes in four of the seven events is how she earned a third-place finish. Her finishes in high and long jumps as well as her efforts in both the 200m and 800m races is how she earned a third-place finish for the heptathlon.
During her final attempt in long-jump, Lien launched herself 6.30m for a season best distance and leaped from third place to second. Lien also finished first in the high-jump with a height of 1.83m for a new personal best distance.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know,” Lien said after beating Team USA athlete Timara Chapman in the long jump. “It was a lot of wind so that helped. The conditions were there, I just needed to hit the right position. When you have one more jump, it’s like, ‘I’ve gotta do this.’”
Ruiz competed in a single event: the men’s 3000m steeplechase. Ruiz reached a personal best time of 9-minutes and 30.93-seconds as he held onto his lead. He finished four seconds behind first-place finisher Nicholas Deutsch from East Texas A&M University and seven seconds before Texas State University’s Elias Palmer, who also recorded a personal best. Freshman Diego Ramirez trailed Ruiz by 19 seconds to claim fifth place in the same race, and a new personal best time of 9-minutes and 49.01 seconds.
Sophomore Ida Breigan jumped 6.20m to mark her first place victory in the long-jump stand alone event and senior Oreoluwa Adamson finished in sixth place with a distance of 5.98m in the same event.
Freshman Finn O’Neill was the sole ‘Runner to compete in the men’s decathlon — where he fell to 14th place — but his top finish includes landing second place in the men’s 1500m race. Sophomore Nyaluet Diew, who specializes in shot put, claimed ninth place but recorded a personal best distance in women’s hammer throw with a distance of 42.58m.
As a unit, the Roadrunners notched nine season best records and 19 personal bests.
UTSA will head to Walnut, California to compete in the 65th Annual Mt. SAC Relays. The event will begin on Wednesday and will conclude on Saturday.
English
Spanish