HOUSTON, Texas — With a small field of teams the Prairie View A&M University track and field women's and men's teams opened up its outdoor season at the University of Houston Spring Break Invite held at the Carl Lewis International Complex, with a few athletes establishing personal best marks Thursday.
"Today was more to see were our athletes are as we open outdoor," said head women's coach Angela Williams. "It was interesting to see what our finishes were. We know we have to compete tomorrow in the Texas Southern relays so we didn't compete in all of the events."
Personal marks were lowered in the 100m by Takara Coleman, 200m run by Joseph JayRielle and the high jump by 14th ranked in the nation Nekiesha Bailey. In addition to several athletes earning Panthers top 10 finishes.
Junior Coleman claimed fifth place in 100m run with a time of 11.98, while freshman Folami Williams was seconds behind, placing sixth in 12.04. Freshman Joseph was eighth in 12.27, sophomore Lakeydra Mosley finished ninth (12.56), and freshman Kristina Ricks had a time of 12.66 to finish 10th.
Joseph topped all PVAMU runners in the 200m earning ninth place with the time of 25.31 a career best. In the 800m, two first-year Lady Panthers made top marks as Noelia Rodriguez finished fourth with a time of 2:25.41 and teammate Darlene Samuels finished sixth with a time of 2:30.17.
Junior Alysse Grogan finished seventh in the 1,500-meter run, posting a time of 5:25.79 in her first run of the season. Senior Ashley Santos finished ninth with the time of 5:32.97.
Three Lady Panthers finished top 10 in the 3000 meter run with JoAnna Benavidez finishing fourth with the time of 11:04.61, while teammates Jovana Espinoza finished sixth at 11:38.14 and Aimee Hernandez clocked the time of 11:40.55 to finish seventh.
Williams also had a top ten finish in the 100m Hurdles at the time of 14.19 to place fifth. In the 4x100, 28th nationally ranked Lady Panthers team of Williams, Joseph, Mosley and Ricks finished fifth with the time of 47.32. The fourth nationally ranked 4x400 team of Husniyyah Rogers, Coleman, Deonca Bookman and Zakia Johnson finished second with a time of 3:49.
In the field events, Bailey had the team's top showing with a third place effort in the high jump at 5 feet, 7 inches posting a career best. In the pole vault, sophomore Geordann Yelder finished fifth with a top vault of 2.80m, while Phyleshia Locke was sixth with a final vault of 2.65.
In the triple jump, junior Zakia Johnson finished seventh with a jump of 11.35m. Freshman Sabrina Ozigbo logged a toss of 38' in the shot put to finish ninth place. She also finished ninth in the discus throw with a throw of 37.72m. Sophomore Morgan Wright finished 10th in the same even with a final throw of 29.58m.
On the men's side, sophomore Tyron Baker posted a career best in the 100m with a time 11.00 to place him sixth, sophomore Dylan Gladney was eighth with the time of 11.25 and senior D'Andre Jackson-Reeves finished ninth with the time of 11.46.
In the 200m run, Samuel Omoera finished second with a time of 21.30, while William Polley was fifth at the time of 21.69, David Alexander finished 12th at 22.60 and Yaw Sekyere was 14th with a season best time of 22.99 as this was his first time running in this event.
Sekyere also had a season best in the 400m with the time of 51.55 placing him fifth. Aaron Austin finished second for the Panthers in the 1500 at 4:06.45. Francisco Hernandez was eighth with the time of 9:22 in the 3000, while Harold Rodriguez Pavon was ninth at 9:50 and Luiz Yanes rounded the Panthers at 10th with the time of 10:14.
In the field events, Deante Crittenden finished second in the high jump of the jump of 1.93m and Sunne Rodriguez Weems was third at the height of 4.75 in the pole vault. He tied his career best, while Tristan Ham was seventh with the height of 4.15.
The Panther teams will return to action Friday and Saturday March 17-18 for the 66th TSU Relays hosted by Texas Southern at Durley Stadium.
