The Incarnate Word men's track and field team had a strong start at the 2026 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships, sitting in third after the first day of events.

The Cardinals earned 13 team points with scorers in javelin, hammer throw, and 10,000-meter run, and had four athletes qualify for track event finals on Saturday.

Mika Funck and Nicolai Nelson earned points for Incarnate Word in javelin, finishing fifth and seventh with distances of 60.84 meters and 58.47 meters, respectively. Alex Brown added a sixth-place finish by throwing 56.55 meters in hammer throw.

Three runners qualified for the 1,500-meter finals as Anthony Zapata, Diego Romero, and Ethan Malesich will run on Saturday. Jake Grullon qualified for the 400-meter hurdles finals with a time of 53.30 seconds.

The decathlon also got underway on Thursday and Incarnate Word has four athletes in scoring position with half of the events remaining.
Gabriel Grebet sits in second with 3,871 points, just 11 points behind the leader, followed by Funck who is in third with 3,694 points. Tommaso Franze is in fifth-place with 3,654 points and Nelson is sixth with 3,528 points.

Grebet placed first in four of the day's five events, winning the 100-meter dash, long jump, high jump, and the 400-meter dash, and finishing ninth in shot put. He ran the 100 meters in 10.98 seconds, jumped 7.21 meters in long jump, cleared the 1.91-meter bar in high jump, and ran the 400 meters in 49.21 seconds.

Funck was top five in all five events, finishing fourth in the 100 meters with a time of 11.29 seconds, fifth in the long jump with a distance of 6.81 meters, second in shot put, throwing 13.15 meters, tied for fourth with a high jump of 1.85 meters, and fourth in the 400 meters with a time of 50.71 seconds.

Franze's best finish was long jump, posting a distance of 7.11 meters and tied for fourth by clearing 1.85 meters in high jump. He also added a sixth-place finish in the 400 meters and seventh place finishes in obth the 100 meters and shot put.

Nelson took fourth in shot put, just 0.06 meters short of Funck's throw of 13.15 meters, fifth in both the 100 meters and 400 meters, sixth in high jump, and seventh in long jump.

The Cardinals return to the track tomorrow with day two of the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships.