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AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 The No. 4-ranked Harding men’s track and field team solidified its status as a national title contender this weekend, moving three different athletes into the No. 1 spot in the NCAA Division II national rankings following a prolific three-meet stretch across the state of Texas.<\/p>\n
The Bisons split their squad between the Texas Relays, the Bobcat Invitational, and the Carl Kight Invitational, recording multiple national top-10 marks and several personal bests against elite Division I and professional competition.<\/p>\n
Field Event Dominance<\/p>\n
Harding’s field event group stole the spotlight, as three Bisons surged to the top of the Division II leaderboards in their respective events:<\/p>\n
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Triple Jump: Senior Yves Bilong<\/a> delivered a massive performance in the Section A finals at the Texas Relays. Bilong leaped 15.81m (51-10.50) to finish second overall. That mark currently leads all of Division II and is just one centimeter shy of his own school record set in 2025. Freshman Artem Konovalenko<\/a> also climbed the charts in the University\/College division, jumping 15.17m (49-09.25) to claim the No. 6 spot nationally.<\/p>\n
Long Jump: At the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos, senior Anton Kopytko<\/a> reclaimed the national lead in the long jump. Kopytko hit a mark of 7.56m (24-09.75), finishing sixth in a heavily Division I field and securing the top spot in the DII rankings.<\/p>\n
Pole Vault: Competing in the University Elite division at the Texas Relays, senior Vlad Malykhin<\/a> cleared 5.55m (18-02.50). The height earned him a third-place finish and moved him to the top of the national performance list.<\/p>\n
Speed on the Straightaway<\/p>\n The Bisons’ sprinters and hurdlers found success in the favorable Texas conditions. Sophomore Caledon Ruwende<\/a> clocked a blazing 10.45 in the 100-meter preliminaries at the Texas Relays, moving him to No. 12 in the country. Senior Donald Nwamere<\/a> followed with a 10.52 in the timed finals, now ranked No. 20 nationally.<\/p>\n In the hurdles, senior Savian Bush<\/a> posted a stellar 13.89 at the Bobcat Invitational to take second place. He backed that up with a 13.91 in the Texas Relays preliminaries. On the 400-meter oval, sophomore Emmanuel Ragira<\/a> moved into the national top 50 with a time of 47.79.<\/p>\n Distance and Throws Highlights<\/p>\n
Distance: Freshman Benson Lingokal<\/a> led the charge in Austin, placing third in the 5,000 meters with a time of 14:15.76. At the Carl Kight Invitational, Brady Axtell<\/a> notched a personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:21.91) to move to No. 27 nationally, while Aidan Bailey<\/a> took second in the 10,000 meters with a PB of 31:54.71.<\/p>\n
Throws: Senior Casen Hammitt<\/a> competed in the elite Section A Javelin at the Texas Relays, placing seventh with a throw of 64.93m (213-00).<\/p>\n
Vault: Junior Everett Mumme<\/a> cleared a season-best 5.20m (17-00.75) to take second in the University\/College division in Austin, while Isaac Hodges<\/a> cleared 5.00m in San Marcos.<\/p>\n
Coming Up Next<\/p>\n The Bisons return home to the Ted and Marcie Lloyd Track and Field Complex in Searcy for two consecutive home meets. Harding will host the Stallion Transportation Bison Multi on April 9-10 and the Stallion Transportation Bryan Phillips Open on April 10-11.<\/p>\n These meets represent the final home appearances for the Bisons before they host the Great American Conference Championships on April 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 The No. 4-ranked Harding men’s track and field team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-235671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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