The Eastern New Mexico University outdoor track & field teams have just one meet left before the NCAA Division II National Championships, and they are in the midst of their greatest season of the NCAA era. Their performance at last week’s Lone Star Conference Championship meet displayed the skill, determination and poise the 2017 edition of the program possesses.
“This was our best performance at the LSC championships in the history of our program,” Head Coach Danielle Kcholi said. “We had a total of 16 medals with nine gold.”
At the forefront of the championship meet for Eastern was the quartet of Jacques Hall, Avery Rasher, Marcus Parker and Julian Coronado. The quartet not only won the Lone Star Conference title in the 4x100m relay, but registered the best time in the nation and automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship meet. Their time of 39.72 was the only sub-40 second time this year.
Parker added two more gold medals, with victories in the 100m and 200m sprints. The freshman already held the fourth-best time in the country in the 100m, but his time of 20.77 on Saturday stands as the national’s second-best in the 200m and broke the facility record for the host site.
Melina Gryschka also claimed three gold medals over the weekend, and won the 3,000m steeplechase, 1,500m, and 5,000m runs. She already had posted provisionally qualifying marks in all three events. Her time of 10:39.10 in the steeplechase was a LSC Championship and facility record
Kenneth Lloyd’s championship high jump of 6’9.75″ tied for 20th in the nation, while Omer Almog won the 1,500m. Alexis Aguirre registered a first-place finish in the javelin.
The Hounds also picked up three silver medals during their stay in Commerce, Texas. Augustus Swanson took second in the 400m hurdles, while Mason Swanson set an ENMU-freshman record in the 800m run. Julian Coronado had runner-up finish in the 200m sprint.
Eastern’s final four medals were of the bronze variety. Almog picked up another medal in the 5,000m run, while Ilia Eligulachvili was third in the 400m hurdles. Shelby Jones and Coley Norcross took third place in the javelin and 10,000m run, respectively.
The Eastern New Mexico University outdoor track & field team will wrap up the regular season on Sunday, at West Texas A&M’s Last Chance Meet. The National Championships will open on Thursday, May 25, in Bradenton, Fla.
