KINGSVILLE, Texas (May 4, 2022) –
Dylan Burrows will look to defend his 800-meter title and other Oklahoma Christian athletes will look to join him in recording NCAA Division II provisional qualifying times and marks during the Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will begin a three-day run Thursday.
This year's LSC meet will be hosted by Texas A&M-Kingsville at Javelina Stadium in hot and humid south Texas. Burrows, a sophomore from Melbourne, Australia, won the LSC title last season in Canyon, Texas, and he ranks 11th in Division II this season at 1:49.17, but that's only the second-best time in 2022 by a LSC runner, behind Butare Rugenerwa of West Texas A&M at 1:47.75. Two other LSC runners also have posted national provisional qualifying times this season in that event.
Burrows also ranks second in the 1,500 meters but won't try for the challenging 800-1,500 double, as he already has a jam-packed schedule. That's because he's the anchor of OC's 4x400-meter relay team that hopes to lower its season-best time of 3:14.65 by about 1.5 seconds to try and make the field for Division II Outdoor Championships later this month.
Camden Miller,
Coby Trevino and
Keiontae Williamson make up the rest of the relay team.
Williamson, a junior from Vernon, Texas, could also be a point threat for the Eagles in the 800 meters, an event in which he ranks 10th in the LSC entering the meet.
In the sprints, OC junior
Verrell McBride of Norman, Okla. – a Division II All-America honoree last season in the 200 meters – enters the meet looking to post a provisional qualifying time in that event. His top season time is 21.27 seconds and he probably needs to run about 21.00 seconds to have a legitimate shot at a return trip to the national meet. He finished second in the LSC race last season behind eventual national champion Benjamin Azamati of West Texas A&M, who leads the conference again in 2022.
McBride also ranks 14th in the LSC in the 100 meters.
Distance runners
Owen Pearce,
Colton Meyers and
Colten Brown will carry OC's flag in the longer races. Pearce, a sophomore from Kingman, Kan., ranks fifth in the 5,000 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase and seventh in the 1,500 meters, although he'll skip the steeplechase to focus on the other two events.
Meyers, a senior from Allen, Texas, is sixth in the 5,000 and third in the 10,000 meters and could conceivably run both races, as they're scheduled two full days apart. Brown, a sophomore from Boise City, Okla., is sixth in the 5K and seventh in the 10K and, like Meyers, is entered in both events.
Also looking to perhaps squeeze into the field for nationals will be a pair of decathletes, sophomores
Chaney Martin of West Plains, Mo., and
Alex Samples of Edmond, Okla., who are ranked fifth and eighth, respectively, in the grueling 10-event discipline. They're shooting for the provisional qualifying standard of 6,420 points.
OC's top field-event rankings are in the javelin, in which junior
Jonathan Olsson of Emporia, Kan., ranks fifth and sophomore
Brandon Zepf of Port Orchard, Wash., ranks seventh. Olsson set OC's school record in the event earlier this season. He also could score team points in the hammer, in which he enters the meet ranked ninth.
Sophomore
Wyatt Thiel of Stillwater, Okla., ranks ninth in the high jump. Samples ranks seventh in the high jump, while Martin is ranked ninth in the pole vault and both are entered in those open events, in addition to the decathlon.
RESULTS
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
