Commerce, Texas

The windy conditions of the 2007 Boathouse Sports North Texas Classic provided to be a formidable threat to the competition on Saturday. However, the Texas A&M-Commerce men's and women's track and field team battled against the conditions to turn in 15 season-best performances.

Sophomore Katie Barthold set a season-best in the 100-meter dash in 12.86, in addition, she had the third fastest time among non-Division I competitors. It is also the tenth-fastest mark in the Lone Star Conference. Teammates Ebony Lewis and Sabrina Hadnot turned in season-best marks, crossing the line in 13.00 and 13.53, respectively.

Barthold also had a season-best in the 200-meter dash (26.61). Senior Niki Williams was eighth (5:08.61) and second among non-Division I competitors and teammate Andra Bickel was 13th in the 1,500-meter run in a season-best time of 5:25.21. Senior Kara Bickel was 12th in the 800-meter run and fifth among non-Division I competitors. (2:32.58).

In the field events, the Lions got a pair of third-place finishes from freshman Haley Wright was third in the javelin with a season-best toss of 90-7 and sophomore Britney Fisher was third in the discus with a toss of 126-2. Teammates Caylin Taylor (112-10) and Rachel Redding (108-0) were seventh and eighth in the discus, respectively.

On the men's side in the sprints, Greg Strickland set a season-best in the 200-meter dash (22.41) for the sixth-fastest time in the Lone Star Conference; in addition, teammate Leonard Jackson crossed the line in 22.43 for a season-best mark, Plus, Sammie Ervan set a season-best in the 100-meter dash (11.90) and Jacob Almond set a season-best in the 400-meter dash (51.24). Sophomore Kyle Thompson was fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in a season-best time of 14.89.

In the distance events, freshman Robert Reed was eighth in the 3,000-meter run (9:12.08). Reed ran without a shoe on his right foot that fell off midway through the race and was victorious in his heat en route to a season-best mark. Teammates Alfredo Soto and Gerardo Delafuente also set season-best times, 9:25.51 and 9:52.42, respectively. Plus, Soto and Delafuente were third (10:34.2h) and fourth (10:46.4h), respectively in the 3000-meter steeplechase.

In the field events, senior Larry Gilbert was second in the discus with a throw of 150-10 and he was third in the shot put with a heave of 48-1 ¼. Also, in the shot put, Justin Holcomb was sixth with a throw of 43-10 1/2. In the javelin, sophomore Leslie White was second with a throw of 167-6 and Holcomb was fifth with a toss of 135-3.

The next meet for the Lions will be the TCU Invitational in Fort Worth on Saturday, April 21. The LSC Championship will be held at Memorial Stadium, May 4-6 in Commerce.