The 76th Annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays began Wed., April 2 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin. It wasn’t until the last women’s event Thursday that the Mustangs made their presence known.
In the 5,000-meter run, Karin van Rooyen finished in first place with a time of 17:05.12. TCU’s Mary Kinyanjui finished in second place, more than 0.13 of a second behind van Rooyen. Sophomore Emily Field finished ninth for the Mustangs with a time of 17:51.15.
“It has been a while since I have raced but I love doing it,” van Rooyen said. “I didn’t really have any plans. It was really windy so I stayed in the pack most of the way because I wasn’t planning on doing all the work at the front.”
Van Rooyen stayed with the pack until 600 meters were left, when she sprinted ahead to the finish line.
“You always try to have a plan but when it boils down to it, it never works,” van Rooyen said. “They were just going slow and I decided to go for it. I just followed my feelings and did it.”
On Friday, SMU’s Matt McKinney had a fourth-place finish in the men’s shot put, with a regional-qualifying throw of 17.05 meters. The freshman pair of Jerome Bortoluzzi and Sasha Lutsenko took home the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the hammer throw. Bortoluzzi won with a 66.66-meter regional-qualifying throw, and Lutsenko’s regional-qualifying throw of 66.42 meters was good enough for second place.
“66.66 meters is my personal best so it is a good start for the season,” Bortoluzzi said. “I wanted to have more fire today but I had good technique and got off to a good start. I had good control because I work a lot on starting every attempt throw and staying in my competitive mindset. It’s my goal to go to the NCAA’s, but right now I am just worried about today. Today was a good start.”
For the women, senior Nevan Lendel finished in first place in the high jump after clearing a regional qualifying 1.83 meters.
“It feels great to come to an event like the Texas Relays and win the high jump,” Lendel said. “I knew on my last jump that if I cleared it, I would win. Fortunately, everything went well on my last jump and I’m thrilled.”
For senior Zivile Pukstiene, winning the triple jump with a jump of 13.54 meters was above and beyond the goal she had set for herself.
“My previous jump was 13.31, and I was hoping to do well at nationals but I placed ninth,” Pukstiene said. “My goal today was 13.43. The wind was at my back, so today was really perfect for jumping.”
Senior Mindi Pukstas finished his Texas Relays career in style by taking home the gold for SMU in the steeplechase. Pukstas followed behind sophomore Soeren Linder, who acted as a rabbit for Pukstas, for the first three laps before dropping out. Pukstas went on to run the final four laps on his own and lead SMU to its first Relays steeplechase first-place finish.
Pukstas’ time of 8:49.87 earned him a regional-qualifying time.
“Going neck and neck with my teammate the first four laps helped me pace myself,” Pukstas said. “But then I knew I had to take the lead.”
Other Mustangs in action were Hannes Hopley and Michael Robertson, who lead SMU to second- and third-place finishes in the discus with regional-qualifying throws of 60.40 and 59.73 meters, respectively. Senior Catherine Betz finished eighth in the javelin throw with a regional-qualifying throw of 44.59 meters.
On Saturday, the SMU foursome of Matt McKinney and juniors Lukas Musil, Brandon Reimer and Abraham Ekal finished in the men’s 4×1,500-meter relay in fourth place behind Texas with a time of 15:48.51. Arkansas finished in first place, winning their fifth title in a row.
