OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Track & Field teams are preparing to make the trek to Waxahachie, Texas this week to compete in the Sooner Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships from Thursday to Saturday, marking just the second league championship meet the men's team will compete in while the women's team will be making its SAC debut.
The events will be held at the Lions Athletic Complex on the campus of Nelson University.
EVENT LIST
- 10,000-Meter Run (M) – Thursday – 8:20 pm
- 4x800-Meter Relay (M) – Friday – 4:45 pm
- 3000-Meter Steeplechase (M) – Friday – 6:35 pm
- 100-Meter Hurdles (W) – Friday – 6:55 pm
- 1500-Meter Run (W) – Friday – 7:50 pm
- 1500-Meter Run (M) – Friday – 8:05 pm
- Pole Vault (M) – Saturday – 1:00 pm
- 100-Meter Dash (M) – Saturday – 2:10 pm
- 800-Meter Run (M) – Saturday – 2:30 pm
- 400-Meter Hurdles (W) – Saturday – 2:45 pm
- 200-Meter Dash (M) – Saturday – 3:15 pm
- 5000-Meter Run (M) – Saturday – 3:55 pm
EVENT NOTES
- While the opening day of the meet on Thursday will primarily feature the Heptathlon and Decathlon events, Aidan Collins will compete in the first regular event of the meet, the 10,000-meter run. Collins established MACU's 10k record at last year's SAC Championships when he posted a time of 34:38.1, scoring a sixth-place finish and netting the Evangels three points in the event.
- Coming off winning the NCCAA Indoor Championship, the 4x800-meter relay team will open the day on Friday. During the indoor season, the tandem of Chase Cotarelo, Collin Seely, Jonathan Avila, and Lucky Maila ran an 8:07.77 to capture the program's first NCCAA Indoor event title. Running in their first 4x800-meter event of the outdoor season, Cotarelo, Seely, and Maila will once again be competing with Blake Jensen joining the squad for the event.
- On Friday evening, Collins will be competing in his second distance event of the meet with the 3000-meeter steeplechase. Collins is the owner of MACU's 3000-meter steeple record with a time of 10:14.16 that was set Grizzy Gold Invite a few weeks ago and will be MACU's first ever competitor in the SAC's steeple event.
- Cora Eyler will be making MACU's women's SAC Championship debut in the 100-meter hurdles on Friday night, which will be the first of two hurdle events she will be competing in as she will also be running in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday. Eyler has set MACU's records in both events this season, marking a 100-meter time of 17.69 set at the OBU All-Comers Meet to open the outdoor season and a 1:12.46 in the 400-meter marked at the Grizzly Gold Invite.
- The Evangels will wrap-up the Friday slate in both women's and men's 1500-meter run event with Kaia Henry competing on the women's side while Jensen, Seely Cameron Pearson, and Saulo Castro will be running in the men's race.
- On Saturday, Jagger Jay and Sam Boyles will open a busy day for the duo by not only competing in MACU's first SAC field event, the pole vault, but the duo will also be competing in sprinting events with Jay running in the 100-meter and Boyles competing in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events. Jay in-particular owns both MACU's pole vault and 100-meter dash record times after setting his pole vault PR of 4.15-meters at the OBU All-Comers Meet, which ranks as the third-best mark set in the SAC this season, and a time of 11.19 at the Grizzly Gold Invite.
- While Matthew Kletke will join Jay and Boyles in the 100-meter and 200-meter, Jaden Ingram enters the 200-meter event with the program's record time of 23.47 set at the Grizzly Gold Invite.
- Competing in his second event of the meet, Cotarelo will be looking to contend in the 800-meter event. In Sunday's Pittsburg State Tune-Up, not only did the freshman middle distance runner set the program's second-fastest 800 time of 1:55.32, but he also ran the third-fastest time in the SAC this season, only 0.05 seconds back of the second-best time recorded by Oklahoma City's Alexander Daily.
- The Evangels will officially wrap-up their SAC Championship meet with the 5000-meter run with Maila, Jensen, Kabelo Maja, and Jawad Salame all running in the event. Maila set the second-fastest 5k time in MACU's outdoor record book at the OBU All-Comers meet when he crossed the line in 15:24.30, sitting only 0.3 seconds behind Jaden Rodriguez's record mark set at last year's NCCAA Outdoor Championships. The time also currently ranks as the third-fastest time set in the SAC this season.
