Day 1 Results (PDF)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- She waited until her very last opportunity to do it, but
Taylor Thomas came through when it counted Monday at the CrossPlex to win HBU's first ever Southland Conference title in track and field with a school-record 5.88m/19-3.5 leap that took her from out of the medals to atop the podium.
Last year's silver medalist as a freshman, Thomas was in fourth place heading into her final jump. She hit the takeoff board perfectly and sailed out one centimeter past the previous leader, Paula Smith of Sam Houston, and Smith couldn't respond on her last attempt.
HBU is tied for fifth in the women's team standings after day one of the championships with 12 points.
Stephanie Aguilar ran the best race of her Husky career to anchor the distance medley relay to a seventh-place effort at 12:33.98 with a 5:19.5 1600-meter leg after strong efforts by
Carolyn McClanahan (1200),
Roneisha Webb (400) and
Kierstin Santana (800).
Santana, the bronze medalist in 2014, won her heat of the 800 earlier in the evening, clocking the fastest time overall at 2:14.74.
Jeremy Lewis had a stellar lead-off 1200 leg to put the men's distance medley relay in contention before freshman
Cody Hammonds got tangled up with 30 meters to go on the 400 leg and hit the track hard. Hammonds got back up and gamely finished his leg and handed off to
Daniel Shelton for the 800, with
Juan Fraga anchoring the squad to an eighth-place finish with his 4:26.6 1600 carry.
Shelton had earlier qualified automatically for Tuesday's 800 final by taking second in his heat with a school record 1:53.85. It was the third time this season that Shelton lowered the HBU standard. Also advancing automatically was
Christian Guzman in the 60m hurdles, as he won his heat at 8.31, the second-fastest time in school history.
After the first four events in the two-day heptathlon,
Garrison Fick is second in the point standings with 2,830, 150 ahead of his pace when he set the school record of 4,585 on Jan. 31 at the University of Houston. Fick won the 60 with a lifetime-best 7.15 and followed up with another personal best in the long jump, spanning 6.79m/22-3.5. He closed out the day with a personal best in the high jump, clearing 1.91m/6-3.25.
Jordan Claypool is 11th after PRs in the long jump, shot put and high jump.
Competition resumes at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday with the heptathlon 60m hurdles.
