COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The University of the Incarnate Word men's and women's track & field teams wrapped up their first meet of the indoor season Friday night at the Gilliam Indoor Tack Stadium.
UIW traveled a fairly young squad taking with them nine freshmen on the women's side and 13 on the men's side, and some stood out at their first collegiate showing.
Freshmen distance runners
Armando Villarreal and
Alexis Quintero put on a show, taking gold in the 5K for the men's and women's races respectively.
The men's 4x400 meter-relay team of
Quadyr Tindal,
Matthew Hernandez,
Jordan Cherin and Richard Kuyjendoll, won their heat and went on to take bronze in the finals.
The women's distance medley relay squad led by senior
Katherine Ramirez along with sophomores
Ivette Alcantar-Herrera and
Maddie Marrone, and freshman
Rhea Miles finished second behind conference foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Afiah Brathwaite, a freshman, cleared 1.63m in the high jump for a six-place finish in her first collegiate experience.
Kiera Taylor-Mathis had an 11.73 meter showing in the triple jump for an overall seventh place finish.
Overall, the women's team finished eighth and the men's squad took 11th at the meet.
QUOTING COACH RIEDEL
"The season openers are always a mixed bag. We have good performances and we have some rough performances. We take it all in and use it as a guidepost for what we need to work on and continue progressing toward our goals. One thing I'm extremely pleased about was the effort, positive attitudes and competitiveness everyone displayed today. This group is going to be alright. They are fighters and they back each other up. It's a fun group of people.
We'll focus on tightening up a few things this week and be ready to go for Texas Tech next Friday."
UP NEXT
Cardinals head north on Friday, Jan. 24 to Lubbock, Texas for the Red Raider Invitational.
STAY TUNED
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uiwcardinals.com, follow the Cardinals on Twitter @UIWAthletics and like UIW Athletics on Facebook.
Follow the team on Twitter @UIWTrackXC and on Instagram @uiwtrackxc.
