May 16, 2010
ARLINGTON, Texas - Cordero Gray set an all time personal best in the 100 Meter Dash and the second best time in school history Sunday during the final day of the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships at Maverick Stadium.
Gray beat his personal best time of 10.26 in 2009 with a time of 10.16. Amazingly, that time in the 100 wasn't good enough for first place and Gray finished third in the finals. Gray also finished third in the 200.
"It's bittersweet because I wanted to win," Gray said. "I'll take it though. I can still improve my time for regional and national."
The men finished fourth with 94.5 points. UTSA men won the meet with 148 points. The Maverick women finished second with 102 points behind Stephen F. Austin's 201.5 points, a Southland record.
Jasmine Walls ended her in the Southland with a dominating performance in both the 100 and 200 Meter Dashes. Walls won both finals with a time of 11.56 in the 100 and a time of 23.36 in the 200. The time in the 200 was the second best in school history, behind Walls time of 23.23 in 2008.
Yes, this is exactly the way I want to go out," Walls said. "I ran my fastest times for conference meets so I was happy with it."
Aundrea Williams probably had the biggest smile on his face as he finished first in the 400 Meter Dash finals with a time of 51.39. It was Williams first Southland Championship first place finish.
"It was a big win," Williams said. "It's my senior year and I finished third last year. I was trying to come back on our home turf and get the title.
"The fans were behind me and it was a big win for us."
While Gray finished third in the dashes, his group finished in the 4X100 Meter Relay finals in first with a time of 40.13. Walls group finished second in the Women 4X100 Meter Relay finals with a time of 45.72.
"We did real well and we'll take the win," Gray said.
Dwight Robinson ran very strong and finished first in the Men 800 Meter Run final with a time of 1:51. Esther Abuto ran very well in the Women 800 Meter Run finishing second. Abuto would of won the event except Dana Mecke of UTSA had a career day with a time of 2:08, just hundredths of a second off the meet record.
Antonia Hopkins continued the strong run by the women as she also finished first in the Women 400 Meter Dash final with a time of 54.25.
Wade Davis just missed finishing first in the Men Pole Vault, finishing with a final height of 4.92 meters good enough for second place.
Jennifer Brown finished eighth in the Women Pole Vault with a distance of 11.89 meters.
Jerono Patrober finished well in the Women 5000 Meter Run final with a time of 17:37, which was good enough for third place.
DeAndrea Smith, Brittany Culbertson, Antonia Hopkins and Megan Turner finished first in the last even for the women's team with a time of 3:41 in the 4X400 Meter Relay.
