BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA – The University of the Incarnate Word men's and women's track and field teams each showed vast improvement at the 2015 Southland Conference Indoor Championships compared to last year. The meet was hosted at the Birmingham CrossPlex for a second straight year on Monday and Tuesday.
The UIW women finished in seventh place overall with 31 points. They earned points in five events on Tuesday with the high jump being the highlight event for the team.
Jasmine Waring (San Antonio/Randolph HS) and
Ashley Joyner (San Antonio/O'Connor HS) each scored in the high jump. Waring finished as the runner-up after tying her school record mark with a jump of 5-7.25 while Joyner set a personal record with a clearance of 5-4.25 to tie for fourth place.
The beginning of the day saw
Courtney Miller (San Antonio/Stevens HS) score the first points for the team in the 60 meters. She finished seventh in a time of 7.71.
Vivian Diaz (El Paso/Chapin HS) was the next Cardinal runner to earn points for the team with her seventh place finish in the 800 meters in a time of 2:17.58. Waring also picked up a point in the 200 meters when she finished eighth in a time of 25.42.
Rainy Castaneda (Laredo/United South HS) set her second school record of the meet in the 3000 meters. She smashed her own mark by seven seconds en route to finishing seventh in a time of 10:02.10.
"Jasmine Waring and Rainy Castaneda had superb performances," said UIW head coach Derek Riedel. "They led a much improved women's team the entire meet. They were both tired, but they remained positive and upbeat thought and galvanized a great team performance by the women. We have a young team. With another good recruiting class we have the pieces in place to be a top 3 team real soon."
Stephen F. Austin finished as the women's team champions with 132.5 points and they were followed closely by Sam Houston State in second place with 118 points. Lamar (106) was third and they were trailed by Abilene Christian (69), Northwestern State (46), McNeese State (38), UIW (31), Houston Baptist (28), Southeastern Louisiana (27), New Orleans (21.5), Nicholls (18), A&M-Corpus Christi (16) and Central Arkansas (11).
The UIW men did not score as many points as the women, but still improved over 2014. Chris DeWitt (San Antonio/Churchill HS) closed out his indoor career for the Cardinals in style by scoring in three different events on the day. He opened with an eighth place finish in the 60 meters in a time of 6.96. Next, he earned sixth place in the 200 meters with a time of 21.92. Finally, he anchored the school record-setting 4x400 relay team that finished eighth in a time of 3:16.16. Jamarkese Williams (Temple/Temple HS), Charles Hall (San Antonio/St. Anthony's HS) and Austin Sandoval (Crane/Crane HS) were the other members of the relay team.
"Chris DeWitt's performance was nothing short of extraordinary," said Riedel. "He wanted to run every event possible so he would be able to do his part to lead the team to a better finish. He did just that. We still didn't score the amount of points we needed, but the younger athletes know what is possible moving forward and they can look to Chris' example as we get better and become more of a force at conference. He is my conference track MVP."
Stephen F. Austin also won the men's team title with 117 points followed by Sam Houston State in second with 104. Lamar (75) was third and followed by Southeastern Louisiana (73), Abilene Christian (70), Northwestern State (70), Central Arkansas (58), McNeese State (28), A&M-Corpus Christi (26), UIW (14), New Orleans (14) and Houston Baptist (14).
The Cardinals are now off until March 13-14 when they travel to Corpus Christi for the Islanders Open to begin the outdoor season.
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