HOUSTON – Jonas Gran sits in second place in the decathlon as the East Texas A&M University track and field team began the Southland Conference Track and Field Championships at Holloway Field on Thursday.
 
Gran (Riehen, Switzerland) is among six Lions to compete in the combined events, while the Lions also picked up their first team points and had numerous qualify for finals on the track.
 
The conference championship meet continues Friday with the completion of the multi events, a few field events, and rest of the qualifying races on the track. Live results can be found HERE. Friday's action can be watched on ESPN+ starting at 5:05 p.m. HERE.
 

COACH PINCOCK'S THOUGHTS

COMBINED EVENTS
Gran scored 3,739 points through five events on Thursday as he is second, 239 points behind UIW's Leo Chauchard and 12 points ahead of Northwestern State's Bruce Boon.
 
After taking third in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.11 seconds, Gran placed second in the long jump with a mark of 23-2 (7.06m), third in the shot put with a mark of 42-10.25 (13.06m). He was 12^th in the high jump and ended the day with a second-place time of 49.56 seconds in the 400 meter dash.
 
In sixth place in the decathlon is Joshua Kommer (Balingen, Germany), who scored 3,481 points on Thursday. He came in fourth in the long jump with a mark of 22-4.25 (6.81m), sixth in the shot put with a mark of 39-0.25 (11.89m), eighth in the high jump, 11^th in the 100 meter dash, and fifth with a time of 50.74 seconds in the 400 meter dash.
 
Joshua Nate (Geneva School of Boerne) scored 3,349 points for ninth after day one. He was fifth in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.28 seconds, 12^th in the long jump, eighth in the high jump, ninth in the shot put, and timed 49.58 seconds for third in the 400 meter dash.
 
Chris Flores (Rocksprings) rounds out the Lions in 11^th place with 3,279 points. He cleared 5-10.5 (1.79m) for sixth in the high jump, timed 50.44 seconds for fourth in the 400 meter dash, while taking 12^th in the 100 meter dash, 11^th in the long jump, and 10^th in the shot put.
 
In the heptathlon, Tina Samson (Benin, Nigeria) is fifth with 3,000 points. She came in second with a mark of 39-2.5 (11.95m) in the shot put, ninth in the high jump, seventh in the 200 meter dash, and ninth in the 100 meter hurdles.
 
Magdaline Campo (Montpellier, France) completed the 100 meter hurdles and had the top mark in the high jump, but did not compete in the rest of the events of the day.
 
WOMEN
Veronika Kramarenko (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) was the only Lion to score on Thursday as she cleared 9-10 (3.00m) for seventh in the pole vault.
 
In preliminary running events, Anete Randma (Tallinn, Estonia) punched her ticket into the finals for the 1,500 meter run with a time of 4:40.44 on Thursday. Analice Pursley (Georgetown – East View) clocked in at 1:03.85 for eighth in the 400 meter hurdles and is through to the finals. Kiara Brown (Dallas – Carter) is also through to the finals in the 200 meter dash, timing 23.94 seconds in the prelims.
 
WOMEN'S POINT SCORERS

Name	Event	Mark	Place (Pts)
Veronika Kramarenko	Pole Vault	9-10 (3.00m)	Seventh (2 pts)

 
MEN
Gran and Kommer also competed in the javelin on Thursday, but did not score for the Lions.
 
Over on the track, three Lions qualified for the 200 meter dash finals as Enoch Fosuhene (Accra, Ghana) registered the fastest preliminary time of 20.73 seconds, followed by Ibrahim Fuseini (Accra, Ghana) clocking in at 20.91 seconds, and Armani Modeste (Castries, Saint Lucia) timed 21.18 seconds for sixth.