History was made and voices were lost in College Station, Texas, this past weekend when the Longhorns competed in their second-ever Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship.
Only three out of the 21 Texas men’s athletes who competed in College Station have advanced to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship next week. The Longhorns left College Station hungry for more and are prepared to fight for national titles in Arkansas.
After placing ninth out of 15 men’s teams, several personal bests were achieved, and three medals were brought home to Austin. Senior Kendrick Smallwood ran a 7.458 second 60-meter hurdle race on Friday evening in the preliminary, breaking his own Texas Athletics record. After an intense showdown with Texas A&M graduate student Ja’Qualon Scott and Auburn junior Ja’Kobe Tharp, Smallwood was two milliseconds behind first place and two milliseconds ahead of third.
“I was telling my coach just the other day, like, it’s a good thing that it was as close as it was because I love a challenge,” Smallwood said. “I love somebody that’s going to push me to do great things, and that’s all the SEC has done since we’ve joined the conference, both indoor and outdoor.”
Smallwood set the Texas school record and completed the sixth fastest performance in program history. The senior scored six points for the Longhorns and ultimately walked away with the bronze medal after running a 7.56 in the 60m hurdle final, matching the third-fastest time in program history. Smallwood’s voice was left raspy and strained after cheering on his teammates this past weekend, and it won’t get much rest with the upcoming indoor championship right around the corner.
Off the track and in the sand, Texas’ leading point scorer and frequent podium finisher, graduate student Kelsey Daniel, left College Station with two medals. On the first day of the tournament, the graduate student jumped 8.21 meters in the long jump, breaking the Texas Record while achieving a new personal best and bringing home the gold.
Two days later, Daniel returned and jumped a personal best in the triple jump at 16.51 meters, earning the bronze medal. Now holding the No. 7 rank in program history with his triple jump performance, Daniel is expected to be competitive at the NCAA Championships.
Other notable athletes include junior Michael Piñones and sophomore Sam Abati. Piñones put up four team points for the Longhorns after placing fifth in shot put for his 19.33-meter throw. Abati contributed one team point for the Longhorns and moved up to sixth on Texas’ all-time performers list, shattering a new personal best after reaching 5.46 meters in the pole vault.
“(The) majority of the schools you’re going to see at the top of the leaderboard is from the SEC,” Smallwood said. “Which already lets you know that the standard is here from this job and a conference alone and other schools are slowly trying to get with that same standard whenever it comes to doing great things on the track.”
Daniel, Smallwood and Piñones are set to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on March 13 and 14.