Feb. 25, 2011
NORMAN, Okla. - The first day of the Southland Conference Indoor Championships in Norman, Okla. presented UT Arlington with good news and bad news for the men's and women's teams.
The bad news is the Mavericks will open the final day needing to make up significant ground on Stephen F. Austin, which leads in women's, and UTSA, which lead's in men's.
The good news is both UTA teams have plenty of opportunities to make up that ground - especially in the sprints events.
Heading into the second and final day of the SLC Indoor Championships, the women rank sixth with 16 points. Stephen F. Austin leads the competition with 56.5 points.
On the men's side, the Mavericks' 12 points place them in eighth - 54 points behind UTSA's first-day total of 66.
Marniqua Thompson turned in the biggest highlight of the day for UT Arlington, placing second in the high jump with a mark of 1.70m.
Isiah Clements finished third on the men's side, posting a high jump of 2.09m.
The women received their other eight points Friday in the Distance Medley Relay. Jennifer Carey, Breonna Baldwin, Marissa Paz and Amanda McMahon finished second in the relay with a time of 12:05.47.
On the men's side, Lionel Mungwari posted three points by placing sixth with a long jump of 7.10m. The DMR team added three points when the team of Kevin Vasquez, Jonathan Todd, Hilton Hemby and Anthony Hilliman placed sixth.
For both teams, the championship dreams rely on accumulating huge point totals in the sprints.
Cordero Gray finished first in the preliminaries in the 60m and the 200m. Clayton Vaughn and Lionel Mungwari also qualified for the finals in both events. Juan Lewis finished second in the preliminaries in the 200m and fourth in the 400m prelims.
That means the men could have as many as seven athletes score points in the 60m and 200m alone.
Renan Palma finished second in the 60m Hurdles preliminaries. Dwight Robinson and Anthony Rene finished second and third, respectively, in the preliminary round of the 800m.
Heinz Schwarzkopf ran the fourth-fastest time in the Mile Run. Anthony Groom and Anthony Hilliman qualified for the finals in the event, meaning the Mavs could have three point scorers on Saturday.
For the women, Pamela Vinson turned in the fastest time in the preliminary round of the 60m and the second-fastest time in the 200m. Shannon Reynolds qualified for the finals in both events as well.
DeAndrea Smith had the fastest time in the preliminaries of the 400m with Brittany Culbertson qualifying for the finals as well.
Esther Abuto, Lindsey Putman and Carey finished first, third and fourth in the 800m prelims, respectively. Putman, McMahon and Paz all qualified for the Mile Run prelims.
The final day of the SLC Indoor Championships is Saturday.
