For the first time since 2008, both the TCU men’s and women’s teams were represented in the team standings of the competition.
Senior Charles Silmon, sophomore Lorraine Ugen and senior Chaniqua Corinealdi competed in the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday and Saturday, and two of the three finished in the top-10 of their respective events.
“We did well,” TCU head coach Darryl Anderson said. “We brought three people to the meet and two of them are going to leave as first-team All-Americans.”
Senior Charles Silmon earned his sixth career All-American honor with a third place finish in the men’s 60-meter dash on Saturday in 6.61 seconds.
Silmon came out of the blocks strong with D’Angelo Cherry of Mississippi State and Marcus Rowland of Auburn pulling away. Silmon was able to get his shoulder across the line over Harry Adams of Auburn for third. Both men posted times of 6.61 seconds, but Silmon got the place with his official time at 6.601 seconds compared to Adams’ 6.608 seconds.
By qualifying for the eight-man final, Simon became the eighth man in TCU history to qualify for the final of the shortest sprint at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Ugen fouled on her first jump Friday and a moderate second jump of 19-7 1/2 (5.98m) left her in 11th in her pursuit to make the nine-woman final. Ugen produced a big jump of 20-6 1/2 (6.26m) to advance to three more jumps.
An fourth jump and a fifth jump of 20-5 1/4 (6.23m) saw multiple opponents pass her in the standings. When on the runway for her final jump, she was seated eighth in the standings. A huge final jump of 20-10 (6.60m) left her with a fifth place finish and also gave TCU four points in the team standings, earning Ugen the status of a first-team All-American.
Chaniqua Corinealdi, a senior, also ran in the 60-meter dash for TCU on Friday and finished 16th with a time of 7.48 seconds.
The indoor track season is over, but TCU opens its season with a home meet in the TCU Invitational. Field events begin on Thursday at 1 p.m. On Friday, field events start at 10:30 a.m. with events on the track getting underway at 12:30 p.m.
