After two days of competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Boston, the Texas track and field squads found success in living up to each of their No. 4 rankings.
While the distance runners traveled up to New England for the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic, the rest of the athletes traveled to New Mexico to compete in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational.
In total, the Longhorns won five individual events and a relay, breaking three school records in the process.
Friday’s competition saw two school records set for the Longhorns. Junior sprinter Micaiah Harris competed in the 200-meter dash, winning with an NCAA-leading time and Texas record of 20.53 seconds.
Graduate student distance runner Kathryn Gillespie continued this success in the mile competition, where she recorded a time of 4:34.64, placing fourth overall and beating the previous school record by over four seconds.
Texas would break the third school record in the 60-meter dash Saturday when sophomore sprinter Julien Alfred followed up her preliminary-leading time of 7.13 seconds.
She cleared the bar and then some in the final.
The sophomore ran an all-time school-best 7.10-second 60-meter, finishing only behind Nike athlete Mikiah Brisco’s winning time of 7.08 seconds. Alfred’s time leads the NCAA and vaults her to No. 2 in the world rankings for this young season.
Alfred continued to shine, winning the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.50, ranking third-best in the NCAA. Alfred’s talents as a young member of the squad don’t go unnoticed by Texas head coach Eldrick Floréal.
“Alfred really made a huge impact on the team right away,” Floréal said in an interview near the end of the outdoor season.
The success wasn’t over for the Longhorns by a long shot.
Sophomore sprinter Kennedy Simon won the 400-meter dash with a personal-best NCAA-leading 52.70-second run, and senior Elena Bruckner won the shot put by over five feet.
The men’s team saw another victory from junior thrower Tripp Piperi. The 2019 outdoor shot put champion didn’t disappoint as he threw 19.95 meters — fourth overall in the NCAA so far.
On the cross-country side, freshman Crayton Carrozza is making waves during his first year at Texas after a strong cross-country season in the fall.
Carrozza made a seamless transition from the outdoor season to indoor and posted a mile time of 3:59.82 in the men’s mile in Boston. With this time, Carrozza becomes the fifth-fastest Longhorn to ever run the event and the sixth Longhorn to run the mile in under four minutes.
“Crayton’s this phenomenal talent,” Floréal said. “We didn’t even think we were going to use him in cross-country, and he ended up being one of our best guys.”
Finally, senior Destiny Collins, Gillespie, sophomore Valery Tobias and senior Alexandria Cruz worked together to bring home the team’s final victory in the women’s 4×800-meter relay in Boston.
While the school record-breaking performances from Alfred and Harris certainly stole the show for Texas, the Longhorns have a lot to be proud of in bringing home five individual event victories and a relay victory.
After a great showing this weekend, the Longhorns are poised to carry this momentum as they approach the Houston Invitational and Razorback Invitational next weekend.
