CANYON, Texas – The Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M picked up event wins in the 5,000m and the women's distance medley relay on Friday during the opening day of the 2026 Lone Star Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Albuquerque Event Center.
 
Naomi Addo gave the Lady Buffs their first victory of the meet as the sophomore from Ghana ran a time of 17:18.26 in the women's 5K for a victory of over five seconds, Julie Lafare found her way to the podium with a mark of 17:49.04 to finish third overall.
 
The 4,000m Distance Medley Relay squad of Eliette Chaput, Cassandra Uribe, Sarah Koomson, Kalkidan Vincendeau, Yvonne Legarreta, Isabella Celis, Sierra Cornell and Helena Klutsey-Carboo close out the opening day with a gold medal, running a time of 11:49.15.
 
The Lady Buffs qualified 13 runners for Saturday finals as WT registered the best mark of the prelims in five different events highlighted by a Blessing Akintoye school record in the 200m with a time of 23.59. 
 
Hope Gray claimed a bronze medal in the women's weight throw as the senior from Borger registered a throw of 17.31m on her fifth attempt. 
 
The pentathlon saw Kailee Benton register 3,389 total points to finish fifth overall followed by Hattie Harrison in 13^th(2,419). Conde-Turpin continued impress as the French product registered a second-place finish in the long jump with a mark of 5.91m on her opening attempts followed by Benton in 9^th (5.43m).
 
Saturday's field events begin at 12:30 p.m. CT followed by the start of the track events at 3:00 p.m. CT.
 
Qualified for Saturday's Event Final
60m – Deborah Acheampong
60m Hurdles – Esther Conde-Turpin, Temitope Adenuga, Taylor Gonzalez
200m – Blessing Akintoye, Deborah Acheampong, Helena Klutsey-Carboo
400m – Blessing Akintoye, Emiliia Tangara, Asana Hamidu, Sandra Appiah
800m – Abigail Abugire, Sierra Cornell