RESULTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Lee University Men's Track & Field team set three program records and recorded its first NCAA automatic qualifier during its competition at the Samford Bulldog Open this past weekend. The meet was held at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
"We had a lot of personal bests and school records this weekend," said Lee head coach Caleb Morgan. "Our athletes show up each meet with a hunger to get better."
Headlining the weekend was the 4x400-meter relay team of Justin Brooks, Jeremiah McCain, Siphosethu Boya and Josiah Brooks. The foursome won the event by over three seconds with a combined time of 3:12.00. The time beat the Lee record (3:15.10) they had previously set on Jan. 20 at the Emory Invitational. It was also 0.20 seconds under the automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championship.
"The 4x400 looks very dominant. This was a big step forward for our team. It is the first auto in program history as well as our first relay team to make a national championship," said Morgan.
Gari Garmendia improved upon the Lee shot put record. His toss of 15.46 meters put him in third place and was 0.15 meters further than his mark at the Jaguar Invitational on Feb. 3.
McCain also tied his Lee record in the 60-meter hurdles. His time of 8.58 in the 60-meter hurdles final equaled his top time from the Rod McCravy Memorial the weekend prior.
Justin Brooks and Stacen Cunningham ran in the 60-meter dash. Brooks ran 6.92 to advance to the event semi-final, while Cunningham finished 36
th (7.30) in the preliminaries. Brooks crossed the finish line in second at 6.89 in both the semi-final and final rounds.
The Brooks brothers finished fourth and sixth in the 200-meter dash with Justin recording a time of 21.66 and Josiah stopping the clock at 21.69. Josiah added a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a provisional-qualifying time of 48.44. Boya was seventh (49.00) and Teagan Lenox was 35
th (51.58).
The trio of Ben Gilman, Andrew Hendry and Ben Tabor all finished in the top 26 of the 800-meter run. Gilman was 17
th (2:01.29), Hendry finished 19
th (2:01.81) and Tabor was 26
th (2:03.78).
Tabor and Gilman were joined by Caleb Eagleson and Dawson Reed in the mile run. Tabor was 12
th overall at 4:25.38. Gilman completed the race at 4:27.64 (17
th). Eagleson's time of 4:31.99 put him in 23
rd and Reed finished 28
th (4:36.57).
Moises Ponce completed the 3000-meter run in 8:50.72 to finish 10
th.
McCain, Cunningham and Derek Flatford were among 19 runners in the 60-meter hurdles. McCain (8.69) was the lone Lee representative to advance out of the preliminaries to the final. Cunningham was 13
th (8.82) and Flatford was 15
th (9.07). McCain was seventh (8.58) in the final.
Evan Hansen and Jonah Mayes were 10
th and 11
th, respectively in the high jump. Hansen recorded a height of 1.90 meters, while Mayes hit 1.85 meters.
Daniel Surman finished fifth in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.40 meters. Cayden Rechsteiner was successful at 4.05 meters for eighth place.
Flatford and Mayes also competed in the long jump and triple jump. Flatford jumped 6.45 meters to finish 14
th in the long jump and was measured at 12.19 meters (12
th) in the triple jump. Mayes hit a triple jump mark of 13.14 meters to finish eighth and covered 6.11 meters (20
th) in the long jump.
"We will rest up this week before our last indoor meet at JDL. This has been a very productive indoor season thus far," added Morgan.
The Flames travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., for the JDL DMR Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The event was formerly known as the UCS Invitational and will be held at JDL Fast Track.
