Track & Field Shines Before Bill Schmidt Classic Canceled

DENTON, Texas – The UNT track and field team had its weekend cut short as the Bill Schmidt Classic was canceled Saturday afternoon due to inclement weather in the Denton area.

The meet began Friday morning and saw all the scheduled events completed despite an hour and a half delay. The start time for Saturday was moved up two hours in an effort to beat the weather moving into the area, but action was forced to a halt around noon and eventually the remainder of the meet was canceled.

The Mean Green opened its outdoor season with a slew of positive results on Friday. North Texas had four winners in field events on the first day of competition, including Allison Stigarll and Jake Parchman in the hammer throw, Dionna James in women's shot put and Armando Acevedo in the men's high jump.

Coming off an all-conference performance at the American Indoor Championships, Stigarll set a personal best in the hammer throw in her first outdoor meet for UNT tossing it 51.28 meters. Parchman, who is the school record holder in the hammer throw, competed unattached at the Bill Schmidt Classic and his throw of 61.55 meters would have marked the second-best performance in program history. James won the shot put with a throw of 13.97 meters, while Acevedo took first place in his first outdoor meet clearing a height of 2.08 meters.

The Mean Green captured two first place finishes on the track Friday sweeping the collegiate 5,000 meters. Aditi Silwal and Trinity Trotter placed first and second on with Tiblets Abreha, Brenna Zerby and Marisa Jacober also finished in the top 10 on the women's side. Connor Bartek took gold in the men's race with a time of 14:59.7 and was followed by five of his teammates finishing in the top-10.

Although the majority of the sprints were set to take place Saturday, the prelims for the 100 meters, 100-meter hurdles and 110-meter hurdles were contested Friday evening.

The North Texas women had four qualifiers for the women's 100-meter final, led by Deja Shaw-Huckaby with the fastest time of 11.64. They topped that in the 100-meter hurdles with five of the top eight times to advance to Saturday's final, including a personal-best time of 14.01 from Nakiya Marshall.

Marshall would win the event Saturday morning with a time of 14.06 as the Mean Green took five of the top six placements in the 100-meter hurdles.

True freshman Jaylen Washington won his heat in the men's 100 meters with a time of 10.43. He would go on to take third in the final before action was stopped on Saturday.

Luke Canon led the way in the men's 800 meters with a 1:52.73, while Chase Lehr and Sukeil Foucha took third and fourth place respectively. The men's 4x100 team of Justin Walden, Samir Williams, Jared Johnson and Washington also claimed first place.

"I thought it was a great meet this weekend for us our athletes definitely came in ready to compete at home," head coach Doug Marshall said. "I was proud of how we adjusted to the delays and continued to stay focused on what was in front of us. I really hate that we couldn't finish the meet this weekend and lost a couple of opportunities, but we are focused on the next meet."

The Mean Green will have a split squard next week when it heads to Houston and College Station for the Victor Lopez Classic hosted by Rice University and the Texas A&M Invitational.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Track & Field Shines Before Bill Schmidt Classic Canceled

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Armando Acevedo

Connor Bartek

Luke Canon

Sukeil Foucha

Marisa Jacober

Dionna James

Jared Johnson

Chase Lehr

Nakiya Marshall

Jake Parchman

Deja Shaw-Huckaby

Aditi Silwal

Allison Stigarll

Trinity Trotter

Justin Walden

Jaylen Washington

Samir Williams

Brenna Zerby

Upcoming Events