North Texas Daily

The North Texas track & field team traveled to Lubbock this weekend to compete in the Texas Tech Classic, held in the Sports Performance Center. Head coach Carl Sheffield was impressed by the level of competition by all of the teams this week.

“The facility’s brand new and this is our first time here so we’re excited to be competing against a lot of the Big 12 schools,” Sheffield said. “It was a high level of competition but I think we did well competing against them.”

Long distance was a point of focus this week for the Mean Green as seven long distance runners had top 10 finishes.

After coming off a fourth place finish last weekend, Senior Susannah Lynch had the most notable day by finishing second in the women’s 3000-meter run with a career best time of 9:40.69.

The men’s 3000-meter run had a strong performance as well with sophomore Florian Lussy who finished third with a time of 8:36.76. Senior’s Mike Lowe and Rick Nally finished eighth and tenth respectively with times of 8:44.17 and 8:49.16.

Sophomore Tim Jones finished ninth in the mile with a career-best time of 4:23.16.

The sprinters and hurdlers also had some strong performances this week.

Freshman Lyric Choice finished twelfth in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.00 seconds.

Senior Jaron Thomas and sophomore Jacob Kevetter finished twelfth and fourteenth respectively in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with times of 8.25 and 8.35 seconds.

Freshman Taylor Blackshire finished sixth in the women’s 60-meter dash with a time of 7.66 seconds while Junior James Cole placed tenth in the men’s 200 meter dash with a time of 21.86 seconds.

North Texas had two women’s 4×400 meter relay teams finish in the top 5. The first team consisting of sophomore Artesha Richardson, junior Bria Williams, and freshmen Lauryn McCollum and Lyric Choice finished fourth with a time of 3:57.85. The other team, consisting of sophomore Darrian Johnson, junior Natalie Velasco, and freshmen Brittni Emanuel and Olivia Zint, placed fifth with a time of 4:01.13.

The men’s 4×400 meter relay team came in seventh, finishing with a time of 3:27.84 seconds. The team consisted of graduate student Jaron Thomas, senior Zach Kirkland, sophomore Jacob Kevetter, and junior James Cole.

Some of UNT’s top throwers from last year participated this weekend and had a productive day along with other athletes competing in field events.

Senior Kevone Kennedy placed sixth in the men’s weight throw with a mark of 17.46 seconds.

Sophomore Kristyn Archuleta threw a career-best mark of 11.60 meters in the women’s shot put, finishing ninth in the process.

Sophomore Jacob Franks tied for sixth in the men’s pole vault with a mark of 4.68 meters.

Senior Dominique Drayden placed sixth in the men’s long jump with a mark of 6.99 meters. Drayden also came in seventh in the triple jump with a mark of 14.39 meters.

One of the things that stood out to Coach Sheffield during the meet was the amount of effort his team showed.

“A lot of times we don’t compete against this many Big 12 competitors at one time,” Sheffield said. “I think they showed a lot of heart and their effort was really high.”

The Mean Green will go into next week hoping to rest some of its athletes knowing that the Conference USA Championship is right around the corner.

“Yeah, I think this week will be a little rest and regeneration,” Sheffield said. “There will be some people who we start to taper off a little bit but I think we left a few people at home that we’ll give a better opportunity to make the conference team.”

Next Up: North Texas will travel to Norman, Oklahoma next weekend to compete in the JD Martin Invitational.

Featured image: Graduate student Chastity Stewart has a career-best time of 7.92 in the 55-meter hurdles. Courtesy | North Texas Athletics