Pioneers place 4th at SAC Championships

SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – Wayland Baptist's men picked up another event win along with two second places and a third as the Pioneers finished up in fourth place out of nine teams at the Sooner Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships here Friday and Saturday. Three WBU women competed for the first time all season and recorded one point.

"With all the adversity of the year and all that happened, I want to commend the athletes on a job well done," WBU interim coach Tre Hinds said.

Wayland ended the meet on a sky high note: a win in the men's 4x400 relay. The quartet of Case Drum, Daeandre Harris, Mark Phillips and Daniel Villegas edged Oklahoma City by 3/100ths of a second, running a time of 3 minutes 21.12 seconds to OCU's 3:21.15.

Hinds called the championship in the mile relay, the second SAC title for WBU after Lorenzo Luces won the triple jump Friday, "the icing on the cake" for the Pioneers, who recorded 80 overall points. Texas Wesleyan took the team title with 224 points, followed by OCU with 173 and Southwestern Assemblies of God University with 131.

After Luces' triple jump win Friday, the freshman came back Saturday and took third in the long jump with a mark of 21 feet, 3 inches. Also in the long jump, fellow freshman Shelton Hearon, who was sixth in the triple, narrowly missed qualifying for the finals, winding up 11^th.

"Those were big points from Lorenzo, and he still had a relay to run," Hinds said.

Luces was joined by Drum, Phillips and Harris in the 4x100, and they grabbed sixth place after the quartet ran the race for the first time.

In the 1,500, Malachi Macias ran a season-best time, 4:12.14, in placing 13^th. "He has a great future ahead of him because he is just a freshman," Hinds said.

In the 110 hurdles, Aiden Heredia placed seventh "after coming into the meet not ranked in the top 10."

More big points came in the 400 in which Case Drum placed second with a personal-best 48.55. "He barely missed a qualifying mark for nationals, but he'll have one more chance at it," Hinds said. Meanwhile, Villegas placed seventh, which Hinds said "was admirable with all the adversity he had throughout the season."

Shanklin and Diego Castenada had "commendable runs" in the 800, and in the 400 hurdles three Pioneers scored with Harris taking second Phillips fourth and Heredia eighth.

In the 200, Drum "stepped up and grabbed more points by placing fifth," and in the 5,000 Macias "gave it his best with dead legs and grabbed two points by placing seventh." Cole Rubac, who on Friday was seventh in the 10,000, and Alex Spencer, who was fourth in the 3,000 steeplechase, "had commendable runs as well" in the 5k.  

On the women's side, Hinds said the Pioneers "came out and competed although we had no chance of placing as a team. From three female competitors, we had all of them be very competitive and give it their best in each event."

Celeste Lozano came back from a long season out and competed in the 5k. Softball players Faith and Hope Castillo competed in the 100 and 200, barely missing out on places in the top eight. Faith came back and recorded WBU's lone point by taking eighth in the long jump after not competing in that event since high school, Hinds noted.

"I am really proud of these ladies," the coach said.

Overall, he added, "I couldn't be more proud of the commitment and determination of all of these athletes. I could not be more proud of the positivity even though it was stacked against us.

"I also want to say a special thanks to Alan Reyna, Lucie Mahelova and Athletic Director Jim Giacomazzi for all the help with this trip, specifically. It could not be done without them and I want to give them a special thank you."

Next for Wayland is the West Texas A&M Last Chance Meet on May 14 in Canyon. It will be the final qualifier for the NAIA National Championships on May 24-26 in Marion, Ind.
 
SAC Track & Field Championships
Saturday's Results
Men
Team Standings: 1. Texas Wesleyan 224; 2. Oklahoma City 173; 3. SAGU 131; 4. Wayland Baptist 80; 5. John Brown 69; 6. Langston 67; 7. OPSU 51; 8. SW Christian 23; 9. UNT-Dallas 15
Finals
4x100: 6. WBU (Mark Phillips, Case Drum, Daeandre Harris, Lorenzo Luces), 43.91
1,500: 13. Malachi Macias, 4:12.14; 25. Diego Castaneda, 4:50.98
400: 2. Case Drum, 48.55; 7. Daniel Villegas, 50.16; 14. Zachary Shanklin, 54.58
110 hurdles: 7. Aidan Heredia, 16.85
800: 16. Shanklin, 2:11.09; 18. Castaneda, 2:25.27
400 hurdles: 2. Harris, 55.55; 4. Phillips, 57.14; 8. Heredia, 1:02.96
200: 5. Drum, 22.55
5,000: 7. Macias, 16:07.13; 10. Rubac, 17:10.61
4x400: 1. WBU (Harris, Drum, Phillips, Daniel Villegas), 3:21.12
Long jump: 3. Luces, 6.48m (21-3); 11. Shelton Hearon, 5.76 (18-10¾)
Women
Team Standings: 1. Oklahoma City 199; 2. Texas Wesleyan 176½; 3. John Brown 111; 4. SAGU 72; 5. Langston 64½; 6. UNT-Dallas 58; 7. OPSU 53; 8. SW Christian 34; 9. Wayland Baptist 1
Finals
5,000: 12. Celeste Lozano, 23:53.81
Long jump: 8. Faith Castillo, 4.79m (15-8½)

Friday's Results
Men
Finals
10,000: 5. Jace Sanchez, 34:08.91; 7. Cole Rubac, 35:01.29
4x800 relay: 4. WBU (Sanchez, Zachary Shanklin, Diego Castaneda, Malachi Macias), 8:45.81
3,000 Steeplechase: 4. Alex Spencer, 10:53.87
Triple jump: 1. Lorenzo Luces, 14.37 (14-1¾); 6. Shelton Hearon, 11.04 (36-2¾)
High jump: NH Hearon
Prelims
110 hurdles: 8. Aidan Heredia, 16.86*; 9. Daeandre Harris, 17.27; 10. Mark Phillips, 18.60
100: 20. Luces, 11.86
200: 5. Case Drum, 22.48*
Women
Prelims
100: 11. Faith Castillo, 13.13; 15. Hope Castillo, 14.09
200: 13. F.Castillo, 27.92; 15. H.Castillo, 29.44
*advanced to finals