{"id":214840,"date":"2026-04-01T18:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214840\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:17:08","slug":"florida-relays-next-up-for-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214840\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Relays Next Up for Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"

LYNCHBURG, Va. \u2013 Liberty track & field will open the month of April by traveling to the Florida Relays for the third year in a row. The high-level competition is slated for Friday and Saturday at Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Fla.
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\nHow to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
\nLive results will be available throughout the meet, courtesy of PrimeTime Timing.
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\nWeather Report
\nGainesville’s weather forecast for Friday and Saturday features considerable sunshine both days with highs in the mid to upper 80s.
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\nOuedraogo’s Outdoor Opener
\nFirst-year Flame Gilles Ouedraogo<\/a> is slated to make his outdoor debut this weekend, competing in the men’s triple jump’s invitational section.
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\nDuring his first indoor campaign at Liberty, the Burkina Faso native earned second team All-America distinction with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. He also pushed the program record to 53-1 while winning the CUSA title.
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\nIn Gainesville, Ouedraogo will go head to head with Oklahoma State’s Kevin Kemboi, who finished one spot behind him at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships.
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\nClarence Powell’s Liberty outdoor record of 52-1.25 from the 2010 NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet will certainly be on watch, Saturday afternoon.
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\nAccepting the Invitation
\nJoining Ouedraogo in competing in their events’ invitational sections are Christian Hicks<\/a> (men’s discus) and Markus White<\/a> (men’s long jump).
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\nBoth Hicks and White finished off indoor track & field season in impressive fashion. Hicks heaved the shot put a personal-best 59-3 to win the CUSA title, while White long jumped a program-record 25-6.25 and captured the CUSA crown during his last two indoor competitions.
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\nFantastic Freshmen
\nLiberty set program freshman records in eight different events during the indoor season, including the women’s 300 (Shelby Smith<\/a> \u2013 39.25), women’s 400 (Shelby Smith<\/a> \u2013 54.84), women’s 800 (Eden Alexander<\/a> \u2013 2:07.70), women’s 60 hurdles (Alivia Rivera-Norman<\/a> \u2013 8.42), women’s long jump (Lara DeFazio<\/a> \u2013 19-5.25), men’s 800 (Jacob Tarkington<\/a> \u2013 1:50.76), men’s 60 hurdles (Tahj Brown<\/a> \u2013 7.70) and men’s pole vault (Chase Johnson<\/a> \u2013 16-11).
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\nOne outdoor freshman mark has already gone down this year, thanks to Isabella Frattura’s<\/a> program-record 163-4 javelin effort at the Virginia Opener on March 21.
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\nA number of other freshmen competing in Gainesville could threaten the standards in their events at some point this season.
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\nShelby Smith<\/a> \u2013 Women’s 400 (Existing Record: 54.33 by Tanner Ealum in 2017)
\nAlivia Rivera-Norman<\/a> \u2013 Women’s 100 Hurdles (Existing Record: 13.72 by Jada Thomas in 2019)
\nAlivia Rivera-Norman<\/a> \u2013 Women’s 400 Hurdles (Existing Record: 1:00.57 by Ansley Gebben in 2013)
\nLara DeFazio<\/a> \u2013 Women’s Long Jump (Existing Record: 19-9.5 by Makenzy Mizera in 2019)
\nMackenzie Boggess<\/a> \u2013 Women’s Triple Jump (Existing Record: 41-2.25 by Makenzy Mizera in 2019)
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\nTahj Brown<\/a> \u2013 Men’s 110 Hurdles (Existing Record: 13.93 by Jovaine Atkinson in 2017)
\nChase Johnson<\/a> \u2013 Men’s Pole Vault (Existing Record: 16-7.5 by Anders Janes in 2019)
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\nRecord Breakers
\nLiberty wasted no time in breaking its first program records of the 2026 outdoor season, taking down both the women’s javelin (Isabella Frattura<\/a> \u2013 163-4) and men’s javelin (Ben Shughart<\/a> \u2013 253-11) at the Virginia Opener, March 21 in Charlottesville, Va.
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\nFrattura’s mark came during the freshman’s first collegiate competition, while Shughart’s performance came in his first meet since the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
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\nShughart currently ranks No. 2 in both the NCAA and United States for 2026 and sits No. 23 in the world.
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\nLiberty broke two program records at the Florida Relays a year ago, including the women’s hammer (Paola Bueno<\/a> \u2013 212-8) and women’s 4 x 100 relay (Indea Cartwright<\/a>, Reese Webster<\/a>, Mahogany Mobley<\/a> and Akilah Lewis<\/a> \u2013 44.61).
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\nCUSA’s Best

\nThe following Flames and Lady Flames rank No. 1 in Conference USA in their events at this early stage of the 2026 outdoor track & field season. The 2026 CUSA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place at Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium, May 14-16 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
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\nMen’s Steeplechase \u2013 Dale Hall<\/a> \u2013 9:20.73
\nMen’s 5K \u2013 Jack Cottrell<\/a> \u2013 14:18.44
\nMen’s Shot Put \u2013 Christian Hicks<\/a> \u2013 56-6.5
\nMen’s Javelin \u2013 Ben Shughart<\/a> \u2013 253-11
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\nPack Your Bags for Lexington

\nThe 2026 NCAA Division I East First Rounds meet will be contested at the University of Kentucky Outdoor Track & Field Facility, May 27-30 in Lexington, Ky. The following Flames and Lady Flames appear to be qualified for the meet, based upon historical results.
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\nIsabella Frattura<\/a> \u2013 Women’s Javelin
\nSophie Gonazlez \u2013 Women’s Hammer
\nKatrina Schlenker<\/a> \u2013 Women’s Steeplechase
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\nBen Shughart<\/a> \u2013 Men’s Javelin
\nReagan Wise<\/a> \u2013 Men’s Pole Vault
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\nUp Next
\nLiberty’s decathletes and heptathletes will fly to Azusa, Calif., for the Bryan Clay Multis, April 9-10. The rest of the team will head across town to the University of Lynchburg to compete in the Dennis Craddock Coaches Classic, April 10-11.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LYNCHBURG, Va. \u2013 Liberty track & field will open the month of April by traveling to the Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-214840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}