UTM freshman Tyreke Sapp rewrote a portion of the Skyhawk track and field record books on Saturday, Feb. 2, by posting two school records to highlight an impressive showing at the Don DeNoon Invitational in Carbondale, Illinois.
The Skyhawks have continued to improve in each meet of the indoor track season with their fourth meet proving to be no different. Along with a pair of school records by Sapp, the Skyhawks saw junior Oisin O’Gailin notch a new program benchmark of his own while numerous other athletes posted personal-best performances.
A native of Cypress, Texas, Sapp began his historic day by making the final in the 60 meter, posting a blazing time of 6.92 seconds to break the program’s long-standing record set by Kris Harman at the same meet in 1999. His day would not be done, however, coming back later in the meet to compete again, but this time in the men’s 400 meter run with a time of 49.35 seconds to best a school mark set by O’Neil Wright in 2000.
The Skyhawks posted a third school record in the men’s indoor mile with a time of 4:13.59, as O’Gailin bested the program’s previous mark set by teammate Leonel Perez a season ago. His time ranked as the top collegiate finisher while being followed close behind by junior Ryan Ford at 4:15.35 in third.
In the women’s mile race, freshman Breanna Alderton won the event with a stellar pace, finishing 5:03.19. Sophomore teammate Alexis Grandys followed suit for a third-place finish at 5:10.78.
Freshman Brady Fry posted another strong showing in his young career by making the men’s 60 meter hurdle final, narrowly missing his personal-best, clocking in at 8.43 seconds.
In the women’s 3k, junior Lydia Lee notched a massive personal record, bettering her time to 10:28.07. Meanwhile, a group of runners composed of Alex Schell, Lenny Baumann and Tim Dye also performed well in the 3k.
“The kids are all making progressive strides reaching peak race fitness for the upcoming OVC Indoor Championships and outdoor season already,” UTM head coach Peter Dalton said. “After a meet of many PRs and great performances, the meet couldn’t be capped off any better than seeing Tyreke and Oisin break school records.”
UTM will have its final primer prior to the OVC Indoor Track Championship with an appearance at the Indiana Hoosier Hill Invite on Friday, Feb. 8.
