The UCA men’s and women’s track and field traveled to Memphis, Tennessee this past weekend for the Rhodes Track and Field Invitational, bringing in impressive stats with 19 top five finishes in men’s and two firsts, a school record and 14 top five finishes for the women.

Senior Kelton Ray said the team performed well in its second outdoor meet of the semester.

“For the second outdoor meet, we performed pretty much as expected,” he said. “Some athletes perfomed better than others. We didn’t take a step back, but there’s still room for improvement.”

The men started out strong with senior Jonathan Burgess winning the 10,000 meters March 21 in a school-record time of 30 minutes and 57.50 seconds.

Senior Chance Tanner came in first for the 400 meters in a time of 47.97.

Freshman Josh Quiroga won the 800 meters in a time of 1:53.36.

Sophomore Grant Williams came in first in the steeplechase in 9:29, and freshman Eric Moore went up and over the call of duty, jumping seven feet again to win the high jump.

Tanner said he was happy with how the season’s first outdoor track meet turned out, though he stressed the importance of staying focused as the season progresses.

“As far as the rest of the season goes, we have to stay determined to improve each week,” he said. “We have an important meet this coming week at Stephen F. Austin State University and our home meet on April 17-18 that will provide us with good competition to help us improve.”

The women showed up as well, with the Bears’ 4×100 relay team of senior Tyaniah Cash, freshmen E’Lexus Garvin, Lauren Daniel and Jasmine Richard finishing first in a time of 47.79.

Junior Jasmine Campbell set a new school record for UCA in the triple jump, going 39-01.75.

Sophomore Sofia Ramirez-Maciel came in second and junior Aysia Oliver finished third.

Coming in second was senior Jean Black in both the 100-meter hurdles, with a time of 14.77, and the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.44.

Cash finished third in the 200 meters in 25.67, while Garvin was third in the 100 meters in a time of 12.56 and Daniel was fifth with a time of 12.66.

Freshman Helene Sensee finished fifth in the 800 meters bringing in a time of 2:20.53, and junior Sophie Clauss finished fourth in the steeplechase with a time of 11:57.08.

In the field, sophomore Hadley Swanson finished fifth in the long jump in a distance of 17-08.75, and sophomore Victoria Kirk came in second in the javelin with a distance of 119-04.

Junior Albert Maeder came in fourth in the 10,000 with a time of 31:55.73.

Freshman Julien Jeandree (14:52.55), senior Connor Ryan (15:01.51) and freshman Preston Borg (15:05.84) finished second through fourth in the 5,000.

Jeandree finished second in the mile with a time of 4:17.16, Burgess fourth place with a time of 4:17.50 and Ryan placed fifth with a time of 4:19.61.

Sophomore James Lassiter finished fifth in the 110 hurdles in 15.48, while freshman Trevon Boyd finished on Tanner’s heels, coming in second in the 400 with a time of 48.56.

Tanner finished fifth in the 200 meters in 21.89.

UCA’s 4×800 team of freshman Brant Cook, Jeandree, Quiroga and Ryan finished second with a time of 7:56.02.

The 4×400 team of Boyd, Ray, freshman Jeremiah Watson and Tanner came in third with a time of 3:19.08.

Freshman Daniel Spickes finished fourth in the pole vault at a height of 14-11.00, while junior Jahleel Lilly was second in the long jump, jumping a distance of 21-04.25 and the triple jump with a distance of 46-06.00.

The Bears head to Nacogdoches, Texas on April 2 to run at Steven F. Austin State University.