BEAUMONT, Texas - After four regular season meets in Houston along with two others in Lake Charles, La., and Nashville, Tenn., the track and field teams of Lamar University are set to have their run in the Southland Conference Indoor Championship meets. The meet will take place in Birmingham, Ala.

It will be over two-and-a-half weeks since LU last competed in the Howie Ryan Invitational. There, they recorded a first place finish from the 4x400m relay team (Parl Eelma, Faith Outing, Sydney Porter, and Chloe Rodriguez), who clocked in at 3:51.27 seconds. Eelma later had a third place finish in the long jump (5.7m-18'10.5") while Outing posted third in the 400m at 56.33 seconds.

They also set a new meet record as Eli Peveto became the first of four runners to break the previous meet record in the 3000m with a time of 8:34.31. Jaylon Roberts, Kenson Tate, Trent Guidry, and Cameron Chin took second place in their 4x400m at 3:16.96.

Meanwhile, Yasmin Austridge, Nia Clatworthy, and Jillian Howard ran in the Music City Challenge in Nashville and they all recorded personal bests in both the mile and the 3000m. In the mile, Austridge (15th) completed her time of 4:44.50 seconds, which is second all-time in program history while Clatworthy's (47th) had a heat win with a time of 4:55.24 becoming the ninth best time in program history and Howard (60th) ran at 4:58.81. The next day saw Clatworthy claim fifth place in the 3000m with a personal best of 9:50.16 seconds, which was the ninth best time in the event while Howard (18th) crossed the line at 10.02 for her new personal best.

This will mark LU's first trip to the SLC indoor championship meet since March 1, 2020 in the final race before COVID-19 interfered. In that event, Eelma finished with a personal best third place in the pentathlon with 3815 points. This included two firsts, one fifth, one sixth, and an 11th place finish. LU also had eight top 10 finishes on the last day, including two firsts.

Last year, LU participated in the Western Athletic Championship indoor meet. Eli Peveto (8:21.66) edged out George Wheeler (8:22.19) for the top two spots in the 3000m while the latter took first in the 5000m with 14:46.33. Eelma also took first in the pentathlon earning first in the high jump (1.71m-5'7.25") and long jump (5.92m-19'5.25") while placing second in the 60m hurdles (8.76) and 800m (2:26.46). She also placed 11th in the shot put (10.21m-33'6").

The meet will start this Sunday and will continue into Monday.
 

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