Track & Field Starts 2019 Strong in College Station

Saturday, January 19

College Station, Texas

All Day

TCU

Texas A&M Triangular

Track & Field Starts 2019 Strong in College Station

1/19/2019 5:51:00 PM | Men's Indoor Track, Women's Indoor Track

Final Results

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – In the team's first meet post-winter break, TCU track and field showed flashes at the Texas A&M Triangular on Saturday. Led by several newcomers and underclassmen, the Horned Frogs took home the win in five events, including sweeping the top three spots in two of them.

EVENT WINS
In their TCU debuts, newcomers Jenea Spinks and Destiny Longmire took the top two spots in the women's 60m, finishing in 7.43 and 7.45 respectively. Hope Glenn rounded out the top three with a 7.51 mark.

Continuing the short-distance dominance, TCU went one-two-three in the men's 60m. 2018 All-American Tinotenda Matiyenga led the way with a 6.81 mark, followed by Lebogang Maloka in 6.84 and Tarrick Brock in 6.85. Adding to their production, Brock and Maloka finished first and third respectively in the men's 200m with times of 21.72 and 21.96.

Pole vaulter Kendahl Shue continued her hot start to the season. After matching the school record in last month's Reveille, Shue claimed sole possession of the school record by reaching 3.74m and finished first place.

Evelyn Mandel opened her indoor campaign with a tight race in the women's 3,000m. Mandel trailed Texas A&M's Kelsie Warren until the final lap when she took the lead and won the event with a time of 9:41.23. Her fastest 3,000m time of the 2018 indoor season was 9:49.69.

RELAYS
Saturday saw the season debut of two members of last year's First-Team All-America 4x400m relay. Jostyn Andrews and Emmanuel Ogwo, along with Matiyenga and Derrick Mokaleng finished second with a time of 3:07.78, the seventh fastest nationally so far in the young season.

On the women's side, Kennedy Crawford, Kayla Heard, Lily Beckford, and Kiana Banks finished third with a time of 3:45.72.

NOTABLES
In the women's 400m, Beckford had one of the best times nationally despite finishing second. Beckford produced a time of 53.62, the No.10 ranked run in the nation and fastest in the Big 12.

Brooklin Klopf competed well in the women's shot put, finishing second with a throw of 13.72m.

COACH'S THOUGHTS
"We had some good things happen and we now have a starting point," head track and field coach Darryl Anderson said. "The women definitely showed signs of getting better. We have more talent than we did a year ago, but it's young talent. Going one-two-three in 60m, we haven't done that probably since Jessica Young's days. Then we turn around and go one-two-three in the men's 60. In the 3K, Evelyn ran faster than she did all of last indoor season and she's only a sophomore, so you can see we're getting better. The men's 4x4 ran 3:07, which is a good start. Then Lily Beckford ran 53.62 which is a great start and why we brought her here. We are showing signs of getting better.

"Make no mistake, we're coming off a break and we don't keep our kids here through the holidays, because we don't have anywhere to train and the weather is inconsistent this time of the year. When you look at the national lists and see which teams are doing well, they all have indoor facilities. During the indoor season, we're always playing catch-up and our training during the indoor season is hit-or-miss depending on the weather."

UP NEXT
The Horned Frogs return to action next weekend at the Texas Tech Classic, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26.