HOUSTON – The University of St. Thomas men's track and field team continued to improve their marks as they competed at the University of Houston's Alumni Invitational this past weekend.
Josiah Akpan set two personal bests in the 100- and 200-meter dashes to lead UST's sprinters at the meet. Akpan ran the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.18 seconds, which placed 24th out of 39 competitors in the event; Akpan's time was faster than those of 10 NCAA Division I competitors.
In the 200-meter dash, Akpan's time of 22.97 seconds was also a personal record.
The 800-meter run saw UST's James Urbina and Jhancarlos Carpio finish eighth and 10th, respectively, out of a field of 19 runners, 15 of which represented NCAA Division I or NAIA programs. Urbina's time of 1:59.89 was a personal best and is now among the ten best times in the event by a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference runner this season.
Carpio's time of 2 minutes, 0.34 seconds was also a personal best and the 12th best time by a SCAC runner in 2022.
The 3,000-meter run saw Jaxon Boyd and Lucas Wolf finished fifth and sixth, respectively, out of 11 runners and ahead of three runners from NCAA Division I Tulane and another from Prairie View A&M.
Boyd's finished with a time of 9:06.91, while Wolf was the next runner across the finish line with a time of 9:11.92.
The Celts' 4x400-meter relay team of Terrence Veal, Bryce McIntyre, Matthew Hicks, and Eduardo Waller gave a strong showing by finishing their event with a time of 3:27.01. That time was the second-best performance by a SCAC team this season.
McIntyre also finished seventh out of 13 competitors in the meet's long jump event, with his best jump measured at 6.84 meters. All the athletes behind him represented Division I programs.
In the 400-meter run, McIntyre set a personal best by finishing the race with a time of 49.59 seconds. That performance is now the third-best by a SCAC runner this season.
The Celts will return to action this weekend when they head to San Antonio for the Incarnate Word Invitational. The two-day event is scheduled to start Friday.
