No. 1 women’s and men’s track faced off in the competitive field at the 2022 Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco on April 22 and 23. The Invitational extended out to teams in the Big 12,  including Baylor, Kansas, TCU and Texas Tech. 

ACU, Texas A&M, Texas State, UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, UNT, New Mexico, Boston, Harvard, Maryland and Nebraska also made their way to Waco to compete. 

The first day of competition started off with junior Kaeli Thompson placing second in women’s pole vault with a height of 3.92m, which is within Thompson’s top 10 personal records in her collegiate and high school career.

Junior Leo Neugebauer placed ninth on day one of the invitational in men’s pole vault by clearing 4.91 meters.

Sophia Falco, graduate student and previous Vanderbilt track and field member, recorded a long jump distance of 5.89 meters — her best for the season, with her Texas Relay jump of 5.79 meters trailing in second. 

Falco also finished sixth in the women’s triple jump with yet another season-best distance of 12.56 meters. Sophomore Riley Foreman and senior Philip Frank finished in seventh place with heights of 2.02 meters and 10th place with 1.92 meters, respectively, in the men’s high jump.

On Saturday, junior Warren Miller showed out by placing first in the men’s pole vault with a height of 5.36 meters.

The meet closed out with junior and previous Texas Tech competitor, Kailei Collins, running the 100 meter dash in 11.54 seconds, setting a new personal record for the runner.

Next week, Texas track and field will travel to compete in the three-day Penn Relays. These relays feature participants from high schools, colleges and track clubs all over the country and abroad.