Despite reduced team size and a high level of competition, both TCU track and field teams brought home event wins this weekend at the Charlie Thomas Invitational.
With higher temperatures on the forecast, head coach Darryl Anderson decided to only travel part of the teams to allow more training time for his athletes.
“We left some people at home, and we’re beginning our prep work for Big 12s with next week as our final tune-up for that meet,” Anderson said. “I’m looking at the weather, and we’re going to have sunny and mid-70s on Monday and Tuesday, so I took this meet away so we could train those days.”
Despite the decreased size in teams, the Frogs still placed in a number of events.
Derrick Mokaleng took home the win in the men’s 400m, recording a time of 46.86. Unable to improve on his season-best 46.34 recorded last weekend, Mokaleng dropped two spots in the national ranks to number 12. He also sits at number 3 in the Big 12.
Destiny Longmire was the only jumper in her event to clear 20 feet, earning first place. After her TCU long jump debut last weekend, the all-American long jumper improved to 6.17m, breaking the top 20 in the NCAA rankings and second in the conference.
Lily Beckford also had a season-best performance in the women’s 400m. Her 53.44 time earned her second at the meet and has her ranked 19th in the nation, good for third in the Big 12.
In the women’s mile, Evelyn Mandel ran a personal-best 4:55.39, a mere 0.3 seconds out of first-place.
Brooklin Klopf advanced to the shot put finals, throwing 14.05m and finishing sixth in the event.
In men’s 60m action, Tarrick Brock finished first in his section of prelims to advance to the finals where he finished fifth.
Darrion Flowers competed for the first time this season, joining Mokaleng, Tinotenda Matiyenga and Glenn Bender in the men’s 4x400m relay. The team brought home a third-place finish.
The women’s 4x400m relay finished fifth with a time of 3:41.85.
Looking ahead at the schedule, coach Anderson expects to see improvement in his teams as they prepare for the Big 12 Indoor Championship.
“We’re getting to a point where we should start to see drops in times,” Anderson said. “The key over the next three weeks is that we can get practice sessions in and that we can start running faster in practice.”
Competing for the final time before the Big 12 Indoor Championships, the track and field teams return to action this weekend at the Texas Tech Shootout.
