Facing nine ranked opponents, Texas women’s track and field knew the competition would be fierce. From Georgia’s Olympic gold medalist Aaliyah Butler to Florida’s dominant distance runner Tia Wilson, the Longhorn’s opponents were not going to give them a warm welcome to their first Southeastern Conference Championship.
While the team as a whole did not perform well, placing 12th overall this past weekend at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships, many athletes had impressive individual performances, achieving several personal and program records.
Thursday marked a solid kickoff for senior Eva Jess and sophomore Aaliyah Foster.
Making history once again, Jess broke her own 5,000-meter program record set just two weeks ago. Shedding five seconds off her personal best, Jess placed fourth overall in the event with a time of 15:39.51.
“I’m really proud of myself,” Jess said. “I think it looks like it happened overnight, but it was weeks and weeks of hard work, so I’m happy that it’s coming together.”
In the long jump event, Foster matched her second-best jump of the season, jumping 6.46 meters, landing her in fifth place and scoring four points. The Longhorns ended the day in sixth place, with No. 1 Arkansas leading the pack heading into the second day of competition.
A jam-packed second day filled with preliminary rounds for the women’s team meant that only two Longhorns barely edged out their competition to qualify for a Saturday final.
Graduate transfer Elizabeth Stockman and sophomore Mackenize Brown competed in the same heat for the one-mile race. Both were in the middle of the pack for the majority of the race until Stockman caught a second wind and charged her way to second place with a time of 4:47.41, moving on to the finals.
Sophomore Carleta Bernard, senior Kenondra Davis and sophomore Micayah Holland were in the same heat in the 60-meter preliminaries. Bernard won her heat with a time of 7.32 seconds, beating second-place Davis by only 10 milliseconds and earning her the last qualifying spot for finals.
The Longhorns fell back to ninth place after day two with 10 points.
One peak performance after another, the Longhorns achieved new feats on the last day of the meet. Stockman recorded the first points of the day for the team after finishing fourth in the mile event, earning a personal best time of 4:20.26 and becoming the fourth-fastest miler in Longhorn history.
“It’s a great learning experience being (at the SEC Championships) for the first time,” Stockman said. “(Getting a personal best) feels super exciting, especially to get to do it at the conference championship, where it matters and put some points on the board for the team, is just awesome.”
Though she won her 60-meter heat on Friday night, Bernard knew there were mistakes to fix before then.
“I was a bit nervous going in, so I’m just grateful to come across the line healthy,” Bernard said after the race. “I think I stumbled close to the finishing line, and I may need to open my strides more and just be aggressive overall.”
In the finals, Bernard earned a personal best of 7.25 seconds, landing her in fifth place.
“Just being at the SEC is so competitive, but it’s just preparing me for outdoors and, hopefully, for nationals,” Bernard said.
Shot putters sophomore Nina Ndubuisi and senior Chrystal Herpin earned eight points for the Longhorns, with Ndubuisi finishing in fourth place with a 17.55 meters throw and Herpin sixth with a season-best 17.30 meters throw.
Claiming the title of the sixth fastest Longhorn in 3K history with a time of 9:12.17, junior Elizabeth Pickett finished fourth overall in the women’s 3000-meter race.
Ending the meet in 12th place, the Longhorns know they have a lot to improve on to make a name for themselves in the SEC Conference moving forward.
“I think we might not have everything all worked out yet, but I think we’re definitely showing up and showing that we belong here,” Jess said. “Next year, I think we’re going to make a name for ourselves.”
