Zamzow, Thompson open multi-events well at Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays

AUSTIN, Texas – The 89^th Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays opened well for a pair of Texas Longhorns on Wednesday as the decathlon and heptathlon got the meet started.

Sophomore Ashtin Zamzow put together a series of strong performances in the first four events of the heptathlon to put herself in sixth place with three events to go. Redshirt freshman Reese Thompson also had some impressive showings in the first five events of the decathlon and on-pace for a personal best.

Zamzow opened the meet well with a time of 13.80 seconds to score more than 1,000 points in the first event. She ended the day with 3,376 points through the four events with three strong events coming on Friday for her.

Redshirt junior Sierra Patrick competed in the first two events of the heptathlon and then withdrew before the shot put competition. She ran 14.61 seconds in the hurdles and jumped 1.63 meters in the high jump.

Head Coach Mario Sategna said he was pleased with her performance in her first Texas Relays as a Longhorn and is hopeful for a final score that would put her among the national leaders.

"I was very pleased with the Ashtin competed," Sategna said. "The great thing, and this is where you can see she's getting ready to make a big jump and hit that 6,000-point barrier in the next year or so, is that even just being consistent across the board, not having to have huge PR's in one event, but being solid in all four. If she comes back and has a similar performance tomorrow, she should be around 5,700 points and that should get her in the national meet. Then we can come back and get to work and get ready for the conference championship."

Thompson had a fairly consistent day and really shined in the long jump. During the second event of the decathlon, the redshirt freshman leapt to a new personal best of 6.99 meters (22-11.75). That just came right after he had a personal best of 6.82 meters.

When his mark of 6.99 meters was posted on the results board, Thompson celebrated with high fives and hugs with Assistant Coach Seth Henson and Olympic silver medalist Trey Hardee.

"I felt like Reese did a great job. The decathlon is still very new to him. He wasn't a guy who in high school did the dec, he was a hurdle and vault guy. The high jump has always been his Achilles heel, and he got over some bars there and then to his credit with strong winds on the backstretch ran a PR in the 400 meters to set the tone for Day 2."

It also was a good day for one professional athlete with ties to Texas. Olympian Ingmar Vos, who trains in Austin with Sategna, ended the day in second place with 3,976 points. He posted the second-best high jump mark of the day and did the same in the long jump. Vos is only 60 points behind the leader heading into the final day of the decathlon.

"It's nice to have guys like Ingmar around because he's a savvy veteran," Sategna said. "It's like having a second coach out there when he's competing because people feed off of his energy."

Day 2 of the Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays begins at 10 a.m. Thursday when the last five events of the decathlon start. The final three events of the heptathlon are set to start at 11 a.m. The first field events of the meet are slated to start at 11 a.m. as well when the women's hammer throw kicks off behind the grandstands in the heavy throwing sector. Running events get underway at 4:30 p.m. with prelims for the 400 meter hurdles.

The evening running session will feature some strong fields in the 800 Meter Invitational races as well as some longer distance events, including the collegiate and high school steeplechase.

Admission to the meet is free on Thursday. Tickets are on sale now for Friday and Saturday sessions. Tickets are on sale now through the Texas Ticket Office with reserved seats for Friday and Saturday going for $20 and general admission for $10. All-Session tickets are $40 and $20, respectively.

Longhorn Network is again providing television coverage of the meet this year. Thursday's action can be seen tape delayed from 4:30-6 p.m. with the conclusion of the heptathlon and decathlon. Live action begins airing on LHN from 6-8 p.m. Thursday. The network will air a total of 14 hours of coverage this week with 11 hours of live action.

Live results from the meet will be provided online via primetiming.com/2016/TexasRelays/. Fans can also get updates on the events through social media by following the team's official Twitter feed @UTexasTrack. Fans can interact and follow the meet by using the official meet hashtag #TXRelays16.

Preparations are being made. It's almost time to start #TXRelays16! Heptathlon & Decathlon start in 45 minutes. ?? pic.twitter.com/nN8LMzYesx
— Texas T&F/XC (@UTexasTrack) March 30, 2016

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

Zamzow, Thompson open multi-events well at Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays

Players Mentioned

Sierra Patrick

Reese Thompson

Ashtin Zamzow