NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Bethany Kelly currently sits in first place after four events in the women's heptathlon at the Stephen F. Austin Carl Kite Invitational as Lamar University's split squads began their meets in Nacogdoches and at the Texas Relays Thursday.
 
Kelly has 3,000 points and leads by 64 over UL Lafayette's Andrea Monroy-Sosa. She placed in the top five in three events, including second in both the high jump (1.62m/5-3.75) and the 200-meter dash (25.27), which trailed teammate Mariam Buenanueva-Saleme by just 41 hundredths of a second. The senior from Killeen also came in fourth in the shot put (10.14 m/33-3.25).
 
The Cardinals collected four top-three finishes for the day as Ke'Asia Hall (5.77m/18-11.25) and Jacob Semb-Josefson (4.87m/15-11.75) placed second in the long jump and pole vault respectively. Jonathan Rivera ran third in the 3,000m steeplechase with a personal best time of 9:22.86. Riley Trent's personal best time of 32:28.29 in the 10,000m was one second off the top two finishers in the event.
 
Meanwhile in Austin, Sophia Saldutto had the best finish of the day when she took third place in the javelin throw, earning a mark of 44.16m (144-10). Anthony Oliver smashed his own school record in the hammer throw by becoming the first Cardinal to reach the 200-feet plateau (61.54m/201-11).
 
Ethan Ellis qualified for the finals of the 400-meter hurdle prelims by placing eighth and crossing the line at 51.39. Ashton Rainey (16:56.5) was one of six runners to break 17 minutes in the women's 5,000m placing sixth.
 
The Carl Kite Invitational resumes Friday at 8:30 a.m. with the men's decathlon. Later, Tre Richardson and Kyndall Drones will kick things off on the second day of the Texas Relays with the shot put at 11 a.m.
 

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