NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Krystan Bright set a 400-meter hurdle personal best to claim Lamar University's lone first-place finish on the second and final day of the Carl Kite Invitational hosted by Stephen F. Austin. Throughout the two-day meet, the Cardinals were in the top three 10 times.

Bright clocked in a time of 1:00.33, which now ranks 95^th in the NCAA Division I top 100. She finished ahead of teammate Aryssa Rodriguez (1:02.86), who finished in third while Kayla Smith was fifth (1:03.50). Bright also qualified for the finals of the 100-meter hurdles and was second at 14.15, which was the fastest time of all the collegiate athletes competing.
Smith later teamed up with Ahmasia Brown, Jocelyn Higgins and Chantell Bowman for the 4x1 relay and together, they would put up a second-place time of 46.18, losing out by three-hundredths.

In the morning, Elias Kraut rallied from fifth place to second in the men's decathlon, scoring 6,015 points, which included first in the pole vault (4.15m/13-7.25) and the 1,500m (4:39.53). Of the 10 events Kraut participated in, he recorded eight top-five finishes.

Amber Simpson, who entered Friday sitting in fourth place in the women's heptathlon after Thursday, moved up one spot to finish third overall with 4,449 points after placing eighth in the javelin (26.70m/87-7), sixth in the long jump (5.01m/16-5.25) and fifth in the 800 (2:32.41). Throughout the seven events, she landed in the top five on four occasions, with her best finishes being third in the 100-meter hurdles (14.66) and the high jump (1.56m/5-1.25).

Ke'Asia Hall was second in the women's triple jump (11.79m/38-8.25) while Israel Williams set a personal best of 2.03m (6-8.00) in the high jump, which was good for third.

Meanwhile, in Austin for the Texas Relays, Kyndall Drones (14.58m/47-10) and Alex Williams III (16.15m/53.00) both landed in the top five in the shot put with fourth and fifth place finishes, respectively. Ethan Ellis competed in the men's 400-meter hurdle finals and crossed the line in sixth at 51.47.

Xiomara Rodriguez will be competing in the women's discus Saturday at 10 a.m. to conclude LU's time at the Texas Relays.

The rest of the Cardinals will turn their focus to the Texas A&M 44 Farms Invitational, which will begin Thursday and run through Saturday.