| Freshman Kayla Pratt won the 5k at the Houston Invitational/Multis on Saturday. |
HOUSTON ? Freshman Kayla Pratt won the 5,000 meters with one of the top times in school history to highlight action for the UTSA women’s track and field team at the Houston Invitational/Multis on Saturday at Bill Yeoman Fieldhouse.
Pratt finished the longest indoor distance event in a time of 17:47.68 to easily outdistance runner-up Micheala Reynolds of Rice by nearly 12 seconds. Her time moved the Comstock High product into the No. 2 position on UTSA’s all-time performers list behind Meg Harris (17:23.45).
Junior Dana Mecke bettered her mile PR with a runner-up time of 4:56.64 in a close battle with Rice’s Becky Wade (4:56.13) for top honors in the 29-person field. The Smithson Valley High graduate had posted her previous career-best of 4:58.26 on this same track two weeks ago at the Leonard Hilton Memorial.
Mecke came back less than two hours later and posted a 2:14.69 to place second in the 800m behind Rice’s Keltie John (2:14.18). The time was just two one-hundredths of a second behind her indoor personal-best of 2:14.67 posted last weekend at the Cherry & Silver Invitational and is her best performance without the banked-track advantage.
On Friday, sophomore Aimee Jonas tallied 3,223 points in her first pentathlon of the season. The La Vernia native finished fourth in the field of 14 multi-eventers behind marks of 9.23 in the 60m hurdles, 5-4 ? in the high jump, 27-7 ? in the shot put, 16-7 in the long jump and 2:39.52 in the 800m.
In other action, sophomore Taelor Wilson logged a personal-best mark of 49-11 ? to finish eighth in the weight throw, sophomore Rebekah Hill skipped to a personal-best 38-1 ? measure for 11th place in the triple jump and sophomore Jayde James placed 10th in the mile with a 5:21.24 clocking.
The Roadrunners will send athletes to two different meets ? the New Balance Invitational in New York City and the Houston All-Comers ? next weekend in what will be the final tune-up for the Southland Conference Indoor Championships on Feb. 22-23.