Saturday, April 15, 2000

ACU competes in two meets

Abilene Christian University men’s and women’s track teams will run at two different meets today as they prepare for next weekend’s Lone Star Conference championships.

The Wildcats will have 15 athletes at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif., which will feature Division I powerhouses such as Arkansas, Arizona, Arizona State and the University of Texas.

The rest of the ACU squad will compete in the Angelo State Relays in San Angelo.

Running for the ACU men in California will be Nic Alexander, who won the college men’s 100 at last week’s Texas Relays, and Shaka Huggins, who won the college men’s 110 hurdles at the Texas Relays. Also competing for the Wildcats today will be John Kemboi in the 800, Terrance Woods in the triple jump, Oscar Meneses in the 100, Jason Prann in the 400 hurdles, Julieon Raeburn in the 400 and Gilbert Tuhabonye in the 1,500.

Kemboi ran a 4:01.02 in the mile last week in Austin, setting both school and Lone Star Conference records.

Geraldine George — who won both the shot put and javelin at the Texas Relays — leads the ACU women’s entries, which also include Selena Bettis in the hammer, Maresa Cadienhead in the high jump, Meredith Garner in the pole vault, Tracey Gust in the high jump, Dawnyel Newhouse in the long jump, Shawntel Newhouse in the 100 hurdles and Hillerie Shelton of Cisco in the triple jump.

George, who was named the LSC track and field athlete of the week, threw the javelin 177-6 last week to set a personal best in the event.

The Wildcats’ contingent will be much larger in San Angelo for the 29th annual Angelo State Relays. The Angelo State men and ACU women are the defending meet champions.

ACU freshman Nick Gaffney, who was fifth last week at the Texas Relays in the 110 hurdles, will run both the 110 and 400 hurdles. ACU’s other standout freshmen — J.R. Holder and Raji Hickey — will run the 200 and 400.

Making his debut for the ACU men’s team is Nick Gray, who will compete in the shot put for the first time this season. Gray, who transferred to ACU from Kansas State to play football, threw both the discus and shot put last year for Kansas State. He finished ninth in the shot put in the Big 12 championships last year and has personal bests of 60-7 in the shot and 170-0 in the discus.

Leading the women’s entries at the Angelo State Relays is Jane McNeil, who is competing for just the second time outdoors after nursing a back injury back to health. McNeil, who won the Tarleton State Relays last weekend, is a provisional qualifier in for the NCAA Division II outdoor championships. She won the 1999 indoor championship.