The University of Central Arkansas’s men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams finished up at the Southland Indoor Championships in Norman, Okla. On Feb 23 the men’s squad marked 33 points and finished ninth overall while the women earned 17 points and finished 11th
“We had some good and bad times during the Southland Conference. We scored more in the girls division than we ever have and we’re getting better each year,” Coach Richard Martin Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach said.
The University of Texas at San Antonio’s men’s team continued their dominance at the championships, winning their seventh straight.
Jatoi Snell, freshman, who had set a school record for UCA in the 60-meter hurdle prelims, finished third in the 60-meter hurdles final and broke the record again. Sophomore Tanesha Maxwell finished fourth in the women’s 60-meter dash with a time of 7.57. Senior Jessica Potter placed 14th in the women’s high jump with a jump of 1.60m.
“There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but we showed up and we did the best we could do. We’ll continue to work on it and keep doing our best,” Potter said. “Everyone worked really hard and I think that the future for UCA’s track team is looking pretty good.”
“A lot of expectations didn’t quite get met, but we broke some records and the team really showed up,” Senior Demarcus Harrison said.
For the men’s side, senior Sage Raphael took second place in the 400-meter dash and broke a school record. His time of 48.23 bested his own previous record of 48.24. Teammate freshman Chance Tanner finished fourth with a time of 48.81.
The group of Raphael, Tanner, Kelton Ray and Harrison, who have been most successful at setting school records this year in relay races, did so again Saturday. with their time of 3:20.24 in the 4×400-meter relay. The previous UCA school record in the event was set back on Feb. 26 with a time of 3:22.22.
“Training before the conference we cut back on strength and really worked on speed, and I think it showed during the meet,” Harrison said.
Harrison said he believes the team will be more revert back to a speed/strength training now that the Southland Conference is over.
The Bears finished fifth out of the 11 teams running in the event.
Minor injuries to players have been reported. The athletic trainers did a really good job of taking care of the team, Harrison said.
“Overall, I think we came and did as good as we could do as a team. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, and keep getting better,” said Martin.
The UCA track and field teams will take their season outside when they open the outdoor portion of their schedule on Mar. 10 at the Hendrix Invitational. The meets events are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. on that Saturday.
