Mean Green Men Produce Best-Ever Outcome at C-USAs

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Zion Hill captured the javelin title to lead North Texas men's track and field to their highest-ever finish and point total at the Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Sunday at the Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium as the men collected five podium finishes and the women four.

Hill achieved his mark of 74.09 meters on his final throw to improve upon his North Texas program record and is now a two-time champion in the event as he was also the victor in 2019.

The Mean Green men totaled 80 points for a fourth-place finish throughout the three-day championship, outdoing the previous team bests of 77 points and fifth place in 2016. The UNT women tallied 41.5 points, their fourth-highest output since joining C-USA, for ninth place.

"It was a good meet for us. We had some outstanding individual performances," director of track and field Carl Sheffield said. "When you can improve your personal best performance at the conference championships, that says a lot about who you are as an athlete.

"I think the performance of the meet for us came on the last throw of the men's javelin competition. Zion Hill goes from leading the competition through five rounds, then gets pushed down to third place. He then came back on his sixth and final throw to win the competition with a huge five-meter personal best improvement to win. It was the number nine throw in the country."

Davonye Jones was the high-point achiever for the men with his runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash in a career-best time of 20.80 seconds and third place honor in the 100 in 10.41. Also in the 100, Karlington Anunagba was second in 10.32 seconds, and Jared Johnson was fifth in 10.59. In the 200, two more Mean Green ran personal bests with Heronn Harrison, Jr., claiming fifth in 21.25 and Johnson seventh in 21.43.

Michael Gonzalez tied for second in pole vault with a career-best height of 5.26 meters, while Cody Bullard tied his personal record of 5.06 for fifth place.

Chris Samaniego grabbed fourth in shot put with a toss of 16.26 meters, and Kendal Maples was sixth at 16.09 meters.

Alec Esposito had a career-best time of 3:50.76 in the 1500 to finish sixth. Jack Beaumont also registered a personal best in the 5k in 14:32.12 for seventh place. Karl Sralla placed twice with a sixth-place finish in discus on a mark of 53.14 meters and eighth in javelin with a throw of 56.38. Jordan Coates-McBride ran his best time in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.21 seconds to take eighth.

"Jack Beaumont continues his return by breaking the school record in the steeplechase and grabbing an NCAA first round mark. Michael Gonzalez and Davonye Jones each made the podium and first round marks during the meet," Sheffield said. "We missed a couple of opportunities in the relay events that would have benefited our overall point total."

Jaleisa Shaffer registered a pair of third place accolades in Saturday's discus (48.66 meters) and Sunday's shot put (15.59) to tally a team-high 12 points for the women.

The 4x100 relay team of Monica Johnson, Lyric Choice, Macy Burnham and Aneesa Scott raced to third place in 45.53 seconds, and the 4x400 crew consisting of Burnham, Choice, Liah Collins and Scott took seventh in 3:48.10.

Johnson was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles, and Choice came in seventh in 14.34. In javelin, Skyler Guillot threw 41.72 meters for sixth place, and Sydney Rogers was eighth with a toss of 38.65.

"Our women were once again led by our senior throwers, Jaleisa Shaffer and Haley Walker," Sheffield said. "Monica Johnson narrowly missed the podium with her lifetime best performance at 100-meter hurdles. We are continuing to reload on the women's side as a lot of talented underclass women got an opportunity to compete in their first outdoor championships since COVID. I'm excited about our future. Our recruiting class for 21-22 is rounding into shape."

A select group of Mean Green will now prepare for the NCAA Preliminaries taking place May 26-29 in College Station.

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Players Mentioned

Karlington Anunagba

Jack Beaumont

Cody Bullard

Macy Burnham

Lyric Choice

Jordan Coates-McBride

Liah Collins

Alec Esposito

Michael Gonzalez

Skyler Guillot

Heronn Harrison, Jr.

Zion Hill

Jared Johnson

Monica Johnson

Davonye Jones

Kendal Maples

Sydney Rogers

Chris Samaniego

Aneesa Scott

Jaleisa Shaffer

Karl Sralla

Haley Walker

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