| UTSA won gold in the distance medley relay for the fourth time in school history on Friday night. |
HOUSTON ? The distance medley relay team of junior Dana Mecke, sophomore Jayde James and freshmen Rebecca Crain and Kayla Pratt struck gold to highlight Friday action for the women’s track & field team at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.
The quartet passed the baton to a time of 12:15.90 to edge runner-up UT Arlington (12:17.03) for the program’s first league crown in the event since 2004 and fourth overall. The time now ranks as the second-best in school history behind the 11:49.57 clocked by the 2004 squad.
“Going into the meet, we felt like the DMR had a good chance to win if things fell right,” head coach Aaron Fox said. “It was a close race with UTA the entire way and very impressive in that all four legs had other races earlier in the day. Winning that race was a total team effort and a nice way to close out the first day.”
Pratt, who pulled off an impressive double by snagging the silver in the 5,000 meters half an hour earlier, put the Roadrunners in second place after clocking a 3:53 leadoff leg for 1,200 meters. James followed Crain’s 59-second 400-meter leg with a 2:16.8 over the 800m third segment.
Mecke, the 2008 SLC Cross Country Champion, then grabbed the baton for the final mile leg and quickly began drafting off UTA’s Amanda McMahon by the second lap. Mecke, who ran in 800m and mile prelims earlier in the evening, overtook the Mavericks’ anchor with less than 400 meters remaining and cruised through the tape in a hand-timed 5:06 for the gold.
Pratt’s tough turnaround began 30 minutes earlier when the Comstock native circled the Bill Yeoman Fieldhouse track 25 times in a personal-best 17:31.34 clocking to take second place in the 5,000m behind Stephanie Ganter of Stephen F. Austin, who crossed in 17:27.47 for top honors.
“I knew it would be tough mentally and physically to run both races that close together,” Pratt said. “I just tried to keep a positive attitude and do my best to represent UTSA. I felt really good in both races and to help the DMR win a conference title is one of the best feelings in the world. I’m just so happy to be a part of this team.”
Pratt’s time bettered her previous PR of 17:47.68 recorded on this same track at the Houston Invitational on Jan. 31 by more than 16 seconds, and it put the school’s No. 2 all-time performer just eight seconds off the school record of 17:23.45 set by Meg Harris in 1996.
“To pull off the kind of double Kayla did tonight, and to do it as a freshman, is simply amazing,” Fox added. “She was outstanding and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Those two performances helped the Roadrunners tally 22 first-day points, placing them fourth through six of the 17 events that will be contested in the two-day meet. Stephen F. Austin leads the 11-team field with 76 points, followed by Texas State (54.66) and Sam Houston State (26).
Sophomore Taelor Wilson, the No. 2 performer in school history, unleashed a 48-2 ? measure to finish sixth in the 20-pound weight throw and collect six points for the Roadrunners, while fellow second-year performer Aimee Jonas tallied a season-best 3,233 points for eighth place in the pentathlon.
In preliminary action on the track, UTSA pushed seven athletes into Saturday’s finals.
Junior Jessica Jones easily won her heat in the 60-meter hurdles, racing to an 8.67 clocking for the second-fastest time of the afternoon behind Sam Houston State’s Tiana Lee (8.57).
Mecke moved through in both the 800m (2:18.13) and mile (5:20.07), while senior Ashley Jackson also advance in two different races, timing season bests of 7.67 in the 60m and 24.81 in the 200m.
Also staying alive were James in the 800m (2:20.29) and Crain in the 400m (season-best 58.59)
The meet wraps up Saturday.