The No. 7 ranked Texas Longhorns men’s track and field are on the final stretch of the season and are ready to sprint past the finish line.
This upcoming weekend, the team will travel to Lubbock, Texas for the second straight year to compete in the Big 12 Indoor Championships, where they look to push for the title after finishing third in 2023. This will be head coach Edrick Floréal and the Longhorns’ last dance in the Big 12 before they join the SEC in the fall of 2024.
The Longhorns had a strong performance at the Eagle Invite on Feb. 9 and 10. On the track, sophomore Logan Popelka, junior Elijah Mosley, sophomore John Rutledge and graduate student Brian Herron set a new school record with a time of 3:03.93 in the 4×400-meter relay. Popelka won the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.66 seconds, while sophomore Chris Brinkley Jr. came in fourth at 47.34 seconds. Graduate student Marcellus Moore and junior Nolton Shelvin finished third and fifth, respectively, with times of 6.64 and 6.68 seconds in the 60-meter dash. Junior Daniel Howells, who previously competed at Brunel University in London, made his Longhorn debut at 1:48.60 in the 800-meter, earning him a fifth-place finish.
Junior Isaac Alonzo and grad student Haftu Knight dominated the distance events, winning the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter respectively. Alonzo’s time of 7:53.72 is the third best in program history while Knight finished the 5000-meter at 14:10.61.
On the field, graduate student Patrick Piperi won the shot put with a distance of 18.07 meters while sophomore Jeremiah Nubbe finished second in the weight throw with a distance of 21.31 meters. Freshman Kelsey Daniel impressed with a triple jump of 16.07 meters – seventh in the NCAA – and a long jump of 7.44 meters. Graduate student Jathan Belaire finished second in the long jump at a distance of 7.62 meters with junior Solomon Washington finishing right behind him at 7.48 meters.
Last year’s Big 12 1,000-meter winner, current senior Yusuf Bizimana, will hope to replicate his exceptional performance of 1:08.00. Bizimana has had a productive season this year, including claiming the winning time of 1:16.40 in the 600-meter run at the Eagle Invite. Herron, who finished fourth last year at 46.23 seconds, will look to continue his strong season in the 400-meter run.
Additionally, in the 60-meter run last year, Moore finished fifth with Shelvin right behind him at sixth, with times of 6.59 and 6.61 seconds, respectively. In the 200-meter run, Moore finished fourth with a time of 20.67 seconds while Shelvin placed seventh with a time of 21.11 seconds.
Moving on to long distance, in the 5,000-meter run, Knight finished second with a time of 14:18.75 while Alonzo finished fourth with a time of 14:19.19. Alonzo impressed in the 3000-meter run finishing fifth at 8:12.22 with senior Rodger Rivera in sixth, clocking in at 8:12.89.
Washington finished ninth in the triple jump with 14.93 meters. Both Washington and senior Leo Neugebauer will be looking to build off of second and fourth-place finishes in the long jump, respectively. Washington ended with a 7.66-meter jump and Neugebauer had a 7.59-meter jump.
In the weight throw, Nubbe finished second last year with a throw of 21.72 meters while Piperi finished third in shot put with a distance of 19.17 meters. Both will be pushing to win after barely missing their chance the year prior, as Piperi missed the top score by .48 of a meter and Nubbe by 1.55 meters.
The Longhorns look to continue to ride the momentum of an excellent season as they hope to overcome a talented No. 2 Texas Tech team to take home the Big 12 title.
