LUBBOCK, Texas (Feb. 25, 2022) – Oklahoma Christian won the program's first indoor track and field title in its three seasons in the Lone Star Conference on Friday, with the Eagles' distance medley relay team taking top honors on the opening day of the LSC Indoor Championships.
Running at Texas Tech's Sports Performance Center, the foursome of junior
Jelte van Atten, sophomore
Camden Miller, sophomore
Ethan Anthony and sophomore
Owen Pearce led from start to finish and posted a meet-record time of 10:12.27, more than four seconds faster than the runner-up squad from Texas-Tyler.
The win in the DMR improved OC's standing in the team race considerable. With 20 points through six scoring events, the Eagles were a solid sixth in the 10-team field with 11 scoring events set to be contested on Saturday.
OC's only previous LSC track title came outdoors last May, when
Dylan Burrows outdueled Jared Gilley of Dallas Baptist (Texas) to take the 800-meter crown at the meet in Canyon, Texas. It appears those two runners could be headed for another showdown in the LSC indoor final on Saturday.
Gilley posted the top time in Friday's preliminary race in the event, finishing in 1:55.17, with Burrows – a sophomore from Melbourne, Australia – second in 1:55.65. Another strong contender will be Abdelrahim Mahgoub of West Texas A&M, who was third Friday in 1:55.80. The times for the top eight runners on Friday were separated by only 1.01 seconds.
Sprinter
Verrell McBride of Norman, Okla., had mixed results in his two preliminary races. In the 60 meters, he ran a career-best time of 6.91 seconds but finished 11th of 18 men, three spots out of qualifying for Saturday's final. But in the 200 meters, he ran a season-best time of 21.47 seconds and easily advanced with a fourth-place finish. McBride was a NCAA Division II All-American last May in the outdoor 200 meters.
The DMR squad accounted for half of OC's team points on Friday, with field-event competitors providing the rest. Junior
Jonathan Olsson of Emporia, Kan., put the Eagles on the board, finishing eighth in the weight throw with a mark of 50 feet, 9½ inches (15.48 meters) – a personal best by more than 4¾ inches.
In the long jump, sophomore
Torrion Montgomery of Midwest City, Okla., took fourth with a mark of 23 feet, 4½ inches (7.12 meters), which he recorded on his first jump. He was in medal position until the sixth and final round, when he was passed by a jumper from Texas A&M-Commerce for third place. Even so, Montgomery's effort was his season-best by more than a foot.
The Eagles had two point producers in the high jump. Both Montgomery and
Wyatt Thiel, a sophomore from Stillwater, Okla., had a top mark of 6 feet, 4¾ inches (1.95 meters), with Montgomery tying for fifth (because of fewer misses) and Thiel placing eighth.
Another potential scorer for the Eagles on Saturday could be sophomore
Chaney Martin of West Plains, Mo., in the heptathlon. Martin stood fifth among 10 men with 2,616 points through four events of the seven-event discipline. He finished third in the 60 meters (7.17 second) and fourth in the long jump (20 feet, 8 inches, or 6.20 meters). The heptathlon will conclude with the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meters.
RESULTS
