HOUSTON – Three East Texas A&M University track and field student-athletes reached the podium on Friday at the Southland Conference Championships including one earning a gold medal at Holloway Field.
Along with the three medals, one of the longest-standing school records in program history also fell on Friday. The SLC Championships conclude with the finals races on the track and the rest of the field events on Saturday. Live results can be followed
HERE. The coverage on ESPN+ begins at 4:55 p.m. and can be watched
HERE.
COACH PINCOCK'S THOUGHTS
COMBINED EVENTS
Jonas Gran (Riehen, Switzerland) started the second day of the decathlon in second place and after falling behind to third with two events left, he threw 183-07 in the javelin for second and closed out the meet with a time of 4:45.81 for third in the 1,500 meter run and clinch the silver medal.
Joshua Kommer (Balingen, Germany) also scored for the Lions in the decathlon, totaling 6,592 points for fifth. He fell to ninth after the first event of the day, but recorded back-to-back top three marks to close out his meet. He threw 172-03 (52.52m) for third in the javelin and timed 4:32.67 for second in the 1,500 meter run.
Starting the day in fifth place in the heptathlon,
Tina Samson (Benin, Nigeria) finished in the top two in all three events on Friday to climb to fourth, scoring 5,117 points. She won the javelin with a mark of 114-08 (34.96m) and had the top mark of 19-1.5 (5.83m) in the long jump as well. She ended her meet with a time of 2:25.66 in the 800 meter run for second.
MEN
Coming into the final round of jumps, Vincent was in fifth place, but leapt 24-9.25 (7.55m) in his sixth and final jump to take the long jump crown by 0.03 meters. It is the first long jump title for the Lions in the Division I era.
The only finals race outside of the decathlon contested on Friday was the 3,000 meter steeplechase and
Nicholas Deutsch (Frisco) finished sixth with a time of 9:29.17, while
Noah Fernandez (San Antonio Central Catholic) timed 9:35.10 for ninth, missing the top eight by just three seconds.
In preliminary races contested on Friday,
Armani Modeste (Castries, Saint Lucia) is through to the finals with a time of 47.06 seconds in the 400 meter dash. Two Lions advanced to the finals in the 100 meter dash as
Enoch Fosuhene (Accra, Ghana) timed 10.44 seconds and
Ibrahim Fuseini (Accra, Ghana) clocked in at 10.53 seconds.
WOMEN
In the final event to complete on Friday,
Blessing Samuel (Ghana) collected a bronze medal for the Lions in the long jump. She recorded a wind-legal jump of 20-1.75 (6.14m), which sets a new school record and break's Charlotte Jones' record of 6.05 meters set in 1999. It was the second longest women's school record still standing.
Samson jumped 19-3.25 (5.87m) to place in a tie for sixth with SFA's Basia Mitchell in the long jump
Kiara Brown (Dallas – Carter) and
Leah Pettis (McKinney – North) punched their tickets to the finals in the 100 meter dash with times of 11.84 seconds and 11.86 seconds, respectively.
MEN'S TEAM SCORE
The men's standings are tightly contested heading into Championship Saturday as both SFA and UIW are tied atop the standings, while the Lions rose to sixth with 25 points. Only eight of the 21 events have been contested thus far.
MEN'S TEAM SCORES (Through 8 of 21 events)
| Place |
Team |
Score |
| T1 |
SFA |
62 |
| T1 |
UIW |
62 |
| 3 |
Lamar |
35 |
| 4 |
Southeastern |
33 |
| 5 |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
31 |
| 6 |
EAST TEXAS A&M |
25 |
| 7 |
Northwestern State |
24 |
| 8 |
McNeese |
23 |
| 9 |
UTRGV |
8 |
| 10 |
New Orleans |
6 |
| 11 |
HCU |
3 |
MEN'S POINT SCORERS
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORE
Through Friday, eight of the 21 events have been scored on the women's side and Northwestern State holds a commanding 25.5-point lead in the team standings over Lamar. The Lady Demons have totaled 72.5 points. The Lions are in eighth place with 15.5 points.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES (Through 8 of 21 events)
| Place |
Team |
Points |
| 1 |
Northwestern State |
72.5 |
| 2 |
Lamar |
47 |
| 3 |
SFA |
45 |
| 4 |
UTRGV |
36 |
| 5 |
A&M-Corpus Christi |
35 |
| 6 |
UIW |
26 |
| 7 |
McNeese |
16 |
| 8 |
EAST TEXAS A&M |
15.5 |
| 9 |
HCU |
9 |
| 10 |
Southeastern |
4 |
| 11 |
New Orleans |
3 |
| 12 |
Nicholls |
2 |
WOMEN'S POINT SCORERS
-ETAMU-
