Longhorns climb national rankings on Day 3 of Texas Relays

Friday, March 31

Austin, Texas

All Day

University of Texas

90th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, presented by Spectrum

Longhorns climb national rankings on Day 3 of Texas Relays

03.31.2017 | Track & Field / Cross Country

Jumpers, throwers make mark on Friday

2017 Texas Relays Headquarters
Competitors
College/Invitational: Men | Women
High School: Boys | Girls

Complete Day 3 Results | Texas Post-Meet Notes

AUSTIN, Texas – Day 3 of the 90^th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, presented by Spectrum, was a light day on the track for the Longhorns but a full day of action for field events that saw a number of student-athletes post season bests and move up the national and Big 12 Conference rankings on Friday.

Freshman O'Brien Wasome found himself in a tight battle in the Men's Triple Jump Section A with Baylor's Felix Obi and Virginia's Jordan Scott. Those collegiate athletes also faced a strong foe in post-collegiate Matthew O'Neal, who set the meet record.

Wasome finished fourth in a tightly contested event with a new personal best mark of 16.31 meters (53-6.25). That mark moves him into the No. 3 spot in the nation behind Obi, who jumped a little over a foot farther. Wasome also joins the all-time list at Texas as he is tied for sixth in program history.

Another Longhorn made a statement in the field events with redshirt freshman Brian Peterson registered his best throw of the season thus far in the discus. He finished in sixth place with a mark of 53.92 meters (176-11) to move atop the rankings in the Big 12.

"It's great with Brian throwing the leading mark in the conference. He is going to continue to evolve as his strength levels increase in the weight room," Sategna said. "The guy is a great student of the discus. You know he has watched and studied a lot of film. It's not surprising to see a lot of those breakthroughs."

Moving up the conference rankings was not limited to the men's field events with redshirt freshman Georgia Wahl having her best performance as a Longhorn. She leapt 12.77 meters (41-10.75) in the B section of the women's triple jump to finish in fifth place. Her mark was wind-aided and does not count toward official records, but it does move her into fourth on the Big 12 list this season.

Junior Lauryn Caldwell also had a strong showing on Friday. After a below average throw in the hammer throw on Thursday, she rebounded with a new personal record in the shot put to finish in third place in the B section. Her throw puts Caldwell at fourth on the conference list.

Seeing so many improvements in the field events on Friday gives Sategna a shot in the arm as he and his coaching staff look to build off the performances and set the tone for the rest of the outdoor season.

"I was super excited to see not just one but multiple jumps for Georgia Wahl like that. She's doing a great job," Sategna said. "Even though they were big PR's for her, I think she's still just scratching the surface for where she can be at in the conference and at the regional meet."

Texas saw its top hurdlers run strong races during preliminary heats during the morning session on Friday with Rushelle Burton and Spencer Dunkerley-Offor both advancing to the finals of their respective events.

Burton clocked a blazing 12.98 seconds in her heat of the 100 meters to win easily. It was the No. 3 time of the day as the field at this year's Texas Relays includes some of the top hurdlers in the nation. Dunkerley-Offor crossed the line in 13.89 seconds to move on in the 110 meter hurdles.

Late Friday during the evening session, Olympian Byron Robinson ran his second 400 meter hurdles race of the season after finishing ninth in Rio this summer. He improved on his preliminary time, clocking 49.93 seconds to finish in second place.

Another Longhorn Olympian ran the 400 meter hurdles on Friday night. Lifetime Longhorn Ashley Spencer won the women's invitational section with a time of 56.66 seconds. It was her first hurdle race since winning bronze in Rio.

The Longhorns ran their first relays of the meet on Friday, starting with the 4x100 meter relay squads. Both the men's and women's teams advanced out of the prelims in the morning session. The men's squad of Charles Anumnu, Carlton Anumnu, Chris Ntreh and Aldrich Bailey Jr. clocked 39.73 seconds to rank third after the prelims.

After finishing 12^th with his best-ever opening 100 meters individually at 10.41 seconds, Charles Anumnu told reporters he felt good with his performance in both the open 100 and the 4x100. He was confident in his teammates as well and feels the Longhorns are poised to break the school record of 39.08 at some point this season.

The women's 4x100 team of Olympian Chrisann Gordon, Teahna Daniels, Zola Golden and Rushelle Burton registered 44.45 seconds. Their time ranked fourth in the prelims heading into the final on Saturday.

Golden also advanced to the final of the women's 100 meters. She ran a wind-aided time of 11.46 seconds to rank sixth after the prelims.

Texas closed the night with a third-place finish from the women's distance medley relay team of Destiny Collins, Raquel Tjernagel, Gabby Crank and Abby Guidry. They clocked 11:35.23 to end the evening for the women's team as the Longhorns look to finish the 90^th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, presented by Spectrum with a bang on Saturday.

The final day of action at the meet starts at 8:15 a.m. with the high school 3,200 meters followed by prelims in the high school 4x100. The first event of the day for Texas will be the women's 4x800 meter relay at 10:40 a.m.

Fans unable to attend the meet can watch the action live on Longhorn Network at 1:30 p.m. Updates on the team will be available on the team's official Twitter feed @TexasTFXC. Live results are also available at PTTiming.com.

Coach Talk

Head Coach Mario Sategna
On Byron Robinson: We know what his goal is. He's going to continue to work hard and do whatever it takes to get to that. He wants to set the school record and break Winthrop Graham's long-standing record there.

On the 4x100 relays: I was excited to see our men's and women's 4x1 relays have some significant improvement. We've got a lot of different combinations that we can run on the men's side so that's going to continue to get better and better.

On Carlton and Charles Anumnu on the 4x100 relay: If there's one handoff you're not worried about, it's probably the twins because they've been handing the stick off to each other probably since they can remember.

On the alumni dinner Friday night: We had a bigger than expected turnout at our alumni dinner. It's very important as we continue to move our program forward that the alumni are coming back and being a part of this. It will exciting for them out here tomorrow and finishing up the final day at the Relays.

Assistant Coach Ty Sevin – Throws/Pole Vault
On Brian Peterson: I was really happy with the way he worked his way through the meet. There was a little complication on his mark. The measuring equipment was mis-calibrated and it was measuring 3.03 meters less than what it was landing, and he didn't panic in that situation. Eventually, it was corrected and he figured he was throwing better than he thought he was. To come back and his fifth throw and hit that high-53, I'm really happy with the way he worked through his technique and I think that he will be able to carry it through the rest of the year.