BEAUMONT, Texas - The Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships are on the horizon as Lamar University will head to Holloway Field on the Rice University campus for the three-day event starting Thursday. The women will look to improve on their third-place finish from last season, while the men hope to get into the top three after placing fifth a year ago.
 
In their last meet, the Cardinals broke two meet records in the 1,500 meters at the Texas A&M Alumni Muster. Freddy Richardson earned his second victory in the event of the season by crossing the line at 3:45.34 while Annabel Hobday posted her first-place time of 4:19.70. Kayli Johnson finished in the top five twice as she took second in the 100m hurdles (13.52) and joined Ahmasia Brown, Chantell Bowman, and Kayla Smith to finish fourth in the 4x100m relay (45.92). Thomas Knoop placed second in the men's javelin after throwing a mark of 68.38m (224-4).

LU has three athletes ranked in the nation's top 50 in their respective events. Knoop is 25th in the javelin after his career-best toss of 70.15m (230-2) at the McNeese Cowboy Relays.  Mariam Buenanueva Saleme finds herself 29th in the heptathlon, where she tallied 5,309 points at the Texas A&M 44 Farms Invitational. Nia Clatworthy (30th) broke the conference record in the women's 10,000m with a time of 33:12.54 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. She will be competing in the 5,000m, an event that earned her gold in last year's conference title meet.

The reigning SLC Men's Athlete of the Year, Kenson Tate, will look to defend his conference championship in the long jump. Should he win, he would be the first Cardinal since Gerald Williams (64-65) to repeat as long jump champion. Last season, Tate's conference title win helped set up a run to both the NCAA Outdoor Championships and the U.S Olympic trials.

Johnson, who won three golds in the indoor title meet, hopes for a repeat performance as she will run in the 100m hurdles and compete in the long and triple jump events. This season, she broke two school records in both the triple jump (12.95m; 42-6) and the 100H (13.45) and also won the long jump at the heavily stacked Texas Relays.

The competition begins at 12:30 p.m. with half of the men's decathlon and four of the seven events in women's heptathlon. The field events start at 2:00 p.m., while the running events commence at 5:00 p.m.
 

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