Commerce, Texas

Texas A&M-Commerce began the first day of the Lone Star Conference Championship meet on Saturday with strong all-around performances at only the second meet on the new track at Memorial Stadium.

The Lions, who are the host of the meet, were led by the NCAA provisional marks from throwers Ryan Graves and Larry Gilbert in the shot put with season-best marks of 52-8 (16.05m) and 52-3.25 (15.93m) to take second and third place, respectively. Gilbert has provisionally qualified in both the discus and the shot put.

Also on the men's side, was Kyle Thompson, who achieved new season-best marks in all three of his events - 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles, and high jump.

Thompson finished the 110-meter hurdles in 14.84 seconds, the 400-meter hurdles in 54.43 seconds, and cleared 6-6 (1.98m) in the high jump en route to a tie for third place finish. Thompson will advance to the finals of both the 110 and 400-meter hurdles, which will be run on Sunday evening.

Eddie Moss set a new season-best time in the 100-meter dash (11.11) along with teammates Anthony Valle (11.19) and Sammie Ervan (11.80). In the 200-meter dash, three Lions - Jacob Almond (22.54), Anthony Valle (22.79) and Sammie Ervan (24.61) - closed out their season with their best performances of the year. In the 400-meter dash, Almond and Leonard Jackson both set new season-best times of 49.24 and 49.56, respectively. Alfredo Soto was sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, crossing the line in 10:18.54.

On the women's side, Niki Williams set a new season-best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:41.99) with a third-place finish for the Fayetteville, Arkansas native in her final home meet. Throwers Rachel Redding set a season-best mark in the hammer (137-6, 41.92m) with a third-place finish and Britney Fisher set a season-best in the discus (133-4, 40.64m) with a sixth-place finish.

The Lions posted a pair of season-best in the 100-meter dash, including Sonoma Gordon, who set a season-best time of 12.46 seconds to advance to the finals on Sunday. Along with Gordon, Ebony Lewis posted a season-best performance with a time of 12.69.

Also, in the sprints, Katie Barthold was a hundredth of a second shy of qualifying for the finals in the 200-meter dash with a season-best time of 25.84.

Sunday's events will get underway with a 12 noon as the women's javelin, women's long jump and men's pole vault. Running events will start at 5:00 p.m. with the women's 5,000-meter run. Admission is $8.00 for adults and $5.00 for students.