Friday Results
CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M's Ezekiel Kipchirchir won two events on day two of the Lone Star Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday in Canyon. The No. 5 Buffs sit in first-place with 68 points after four events, 43 points ahead of Angelo State.
Kipchirchir won the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the second straight championships in a time of 9:10.66. The Eldoret, Kenya native made a move with less than three laps remaining to finish in the sixth-fastest time in program history.
Innocent Murwanashyaka closed hard and finish third in 9:27.49 with Emmanuel Too in fourth, 9:38.71, and Noah Bundrock in fifth, 9:41.77.
Well past midnight, Kipchirchir won the 10,000-meters as the Buffs swept the podium. He finished in 31:20.66 followed by Daniel Haymes in second, 31:25.94 and Ahmed Omer in third, 31:33.63. Jay Hall also picked up three points with a sixth-place finish running 32:12.75.
Loic Rodrigues punched his ticket to the outdoor championships in decathlon after one of the top performances in program history. He finished second with 7,483 points, the second-most in program history and most since 1984. He started the day with 809 points in the 110-meter hurdles after running 15.34 followed by 713 points in the discus with a mark of 139-0 (42.36m). He cleared 15-1 (4.60m) in the pole vault before throwing 162-5 (49.50m) in the javelin. He finished the competition with the fastest 1,500-meter, 4:40.52, and nearly stealing the victory from Angelo State's Elvis Kryukov.
Gerard Bryant finished sixth with a personal best 6,418 points, which is a provisional mark. He scored over 500 points in three of the final five events including 821 points in the 110-meter hurdles after clocking a time of 15.24. He also had a PR performance in the pole vault with a clearance of 11-5.75 (3.50m).
In the lone field final of the day, Tyler Pickens finished fourth in the shot put with a toss of 53-11.75 (16.45m) with Ray Dixon finishing 10th with a mark of 51-5.5 (15.68m).
Following a weather delay that lasted over three hours, Tyrin Lewis and Jahmaal Wilson qualified for the final in the 110-meter hurdles final in impressive fashion. Lewis ran the fourth-fastest time in program history, 13.83, while Wilson ran the sixth-fastest time in program history, 13.95.
Benjamin Azamati was the top qualifier in the 100-meter dash as the freshman ran the second-fastest time in NCAA Division III history, 10.03. That time also breaks the LSC and facility record. Azamait returned to the track to run 21.12 in the 200-meters and qualify for the final.
His fellow countryman Desmond Aryee will join him in the final after running 10.50.
Arnaud Taki had an impressive solo effort in the 800-meters as he ran 1:50.40 to win his heat and punch his ticket to the national meet. Brian Nganga also qualified for the final after running 1:54.13 out of Heat 2.
The hammer throw, pole vault and triple jump were all moved to Saturday following the weather delay and track conditions.
The final day of the championships will get underway tomorrow at 11 a.m. A live stream of all running finals will be available on the LSC Digital Network.
