The UCA track team competed in Houston this weekend at the Robert Plat Invitational, breaking some personal records and making overall improvements.
The indoor meet was only the third of the season.
The team showed up in Houston hoping to improve from their previous two meets and also reveal what areas still need some work.
“We have a lot of work ahead to get to where we want to be. All of our meets lead us to our ASUN conference championships at the end of February,” Coach Josey Weaver said.
While the team didn’t win any of the events, several athletes placed in their respective events, broke personal records and made their debuts in races.
Coach Weaver highlighted five athletes whose performances in Houston stood out. Junior Kendelle McCoy had two personal records in her first meet of the season, running 25.13 seconds in the 200 and 7.70 in the 60.
Senior Kayla Scott dropped four seconds off her previous personal record in the women’s 400-meter, bringing it to 59.16 seconds.
Sophomore Zadie St. Louis made her season debut in the 400.
Sophomore Miranda Nichols beat her personal record in both the shot put with an 11.46 meter throw, and in the weight throw with 12.21 meters.
Sophomore Tyrone Luckett had a personal record in his first 400 of the year with a time of 50.11 seconds.
“These individuals had a great day and led the way for our team,” Weaver said.
Scott said she was excited about hitting a new personal record, especially by several seconds.
“It felt amazing! I knew I was going to PR but not by a huge margin like four seconds,” Scott said.
This meet was a learning experience for the Bears as they competed against some much bigger programs, including The University of Houston and Rice University.
Despite the tough competition, UCA athletes placed in the top 10 of several events.
The women’s team placed second in the 4×400-meter relay.
St. Louis placed seventh in the women’s 400m dash.
Luckett placed eighth in the men’s 400m dash.
Freshman Jonathan Heath placed fifth in the men’s 800-meter, setting a new personal record at 1:55.28.
Sophomore Gavin Frick placed fourth in the men’s 3000-meter with a personal record 8:40.83.
McCoy placed eighth in the women’s 200-meter dash.
Junior Abby McMillin placed ninth in the women’s high jump.
Junior Malik Beasley placed 10th in the men’s weight throw and ninth in the men’s shot put. Three UCA athletes placed in the top 10 in the women’s pole vault with freshmen Sophia Schrader in second, Kylie Coleman in seventh and Lani Lanier in a four-way tie for ninth place along with sophomore Anne Baliel.
Weaver said that as a team, one of the biggest things they are working on is pushing past the mental fatigue and letting their bodies do the rest.
“We are really looking at how we respond and compete in tough situations. In our sport, the mind breaks before the body. We are teaching our athletes how to push past what they may believe as their limits,” Weaver said.
Weaver was hopeful after watching the Bears compete in Houston.
“I do believe we took a step forward in getting ready as a team. We are building trust within the team. I see teammates buying in and supporting one another. As far as our performances, we still have to become more consistent week in and week out. That will continue to get better each week. I’m excited to see our squad get after these next two weeks of training,” Weaver said.
Similarly, Scott said she is looking forward to watching how her team competes at the indoor level.
“I’m looking forward to indoor conference to see where we match up within the conference and see the hard work all come together,” Scott said.
The track and field team will be preparing for its next meet on Saturday, Feb. 4 at Samford University, followed by a meet at the University of South Alabama the following day, Sunday, Feb. 5.