Texas divided the team and conquered goals this weekend, competing in two separate meets at both the Don Kirby Invite in Albuquerque, N.M. and the SPIRE Invitational in Geneva, Ohio.

Top performances began on Friday in New Mexico as thrower Jacob Thormaehlen won the shot put with a personal best mark of 66-05.25 to beat the record formerly held by Florida’s Kemal Mesic. Hayden Baillio finished close behind with a third place toss and Will Spence threw his personal best, inching closer to the 60-foot mark.

The Longhorns had two top 10 finishes in the triple jump. Mark Jackson finished second with a mark of 15.71 meters and Jarard Bruner placed eighth. The pole vault also proved to be a strong event for Texas as Maston Wallace, Mark Thomas and Hayden Clark finished in the top six.

In the running events, Marquise Goodwin clocked in a 6.71 in the finals and a seventh place finish, while the 4×400-meter relay team of Trevante Rhodes, Dereck Dreyer, Josh Brudnick and Jake Wohlford came in sixth with a time of 3:16.97.

The men continued to produce top 10 finishes as the remaining team members competed at the SPIRE Invitational. Three Texas runners competed in the 5000-meter with Will Nation leading the pack with a third place time of 14:18.35. Sheroid Evans clocked in among the top in both the 200-meter and 400-meter, claiming fourth and second places respectively. Kyle Thompson also recorded fourth place finish with his performance in the 800-meter run.

The distance runners continued to earn points for the Longhorns as sophomore Ryan Dohner placed sixth in the 3000-meter with a time of 8:00.24. In the mile run, Patrick McGregor had the top UT finish in the event with 10th place.

After a weekend of solid performances from the Longhorns, Texas looks to be right on track in preparation for the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships on Feb. 24-25 in College Station.

Printed on Monday, February 13, 2012 as: Longhorns split up squads, show up strong in two meets