KINGSVILLE, Texas (May 6, 2022) – With a flourish in the final event, Oklahoma Christian's Chaney Martin posted a NCAA Division II provisional qualifying mark in the decathlon on Friday in the Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Javelina Stadium.

His teammate, Alex Samples, also earned team points in the decathlon as well as in the high jump, joining Wyatt Thiel in doing so in the latter, and three other Eagles advanced to event finals on a mostly successful day in south Texas.

Martin, a sophomore from West Plains, Mo., finished fourth with a career-best 6,708 points in the decathlon, a grueling 10-event discipline. He began the day sixth in the 12-man field but steadily moved up. Martin took third in the pole vault at 14 feet, 5¼ inches (4.40 meters) and in the javelin (156 feet, 8 inches/47.76 meters) before winning the 1,500 meters in 4:38.25.

Unofficially, Martin's score ranks 15th in Division II this season, putting him in position to perhaps compete later this month in the NCAA Division II Championships in Allendale, Mich.

Samples, a sophomore from Edmond, Okla., slipped from second to sixth place in the decathlon, but his 6,219 points still were enough to earn the Eagles three team points, to go with the five earned by Martin.

After the decathlon, Samples still had enough energy to score even more team points for OC in the high jump, as he and Thiel, a sophomore from Stillwater, Okla., tied for seventh in the 14-man field at 6 feet, 4¾ inches (1.95 meters). Each picked up 1.5 points for OC, which ended the day with 19 points, putting the Eagles sixth among the 11 teams in the meet. OC trailed fifth-place Lubbock Christian (Texas) by just two points.

Two of OC's five entries in the 800 meters advanced through the preliminary round. Keiontae Williamson, a junior from Vernon, Texas, had the fourth-fasted time among 24 men in the prelims at 1:54.22, while sophomore Dylan Burrows of Melbourne, Australia – the defending LSC champ in the event – cruised while winning his heat in 1:56.18 to move on.

Sophomore Ethan Anthony of Mornington, Australia, actually had the eighth-fastest time at 1:55.16, but ended up two spots out of advancing. Junior Jelte van Atten of Leiden, Netherlands (15th in 1:57.19) and sophomore Austin McNair of Denton, Texas (17th in 1:58.79) also didn't advance.

By .01 of a second, OC junior Verrell McBride made the eight-man field for the 100-meter final, placing eighth among 23 men in the prelims in 10.60 seconds to snag the last qualifying spot. Freshman Isaac Koomson of Accra, Ghana, placed 20th in 11.13 seconds.

The three-day meet will conclude on Saturday.

RESULTS