SAN ANGELO, Texas - Trinity University Track & Field was thrust to the top of the national leaderboard in the NCAA III men's 4x100-meter relay Saturday to lead a strong day at the David Noble Relays, hosted by NCAA II Angelo State University.
The quartet of Legend Grigsby (Houston, Texas / Cypress Creek), BJ Stewart (Shreveport, La. / Woodlawn), Brian Rainey (Cedar Hill, Texas / Cedar Hill) and Sean Majors (Fredericksburg, Texas / Fredericksburg) landed fourth in the 4x100 in 41.40 seconds, edging out the East Texas Baptist University squad that set the season's previous high at last weekend's D3 Challenge in Seguin, Texas.
A second top-five mark in the event came on a 13.23-meter mark by Justin Johnson (Houston, Texas / Manvel) in the triple jump, one of several notable performances in the field. The sophomore remains ninth in NCAA III with his 13.86-meter attempt from the Trinity Invitational on March 4.
Majors and Johnson linked up with Josue Parra (Nile, Ill. / Maine East) and Grant Bishop (Seguin, Texas / Navarro) for a new season-best 3:19.75 and the 10th spot in the 4x400 relay to remain fifth on the NCAA III leaderboard, increasing the group's margin over sixth to nearly a second and a half.
The women's 4x400 relay team of Sealan Ledat (Richardson, Texas / Richardson), Carter Gray (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Notre Dame), Aliya Jackson (Houston, Texas / Shadow Creek) and Taylor Kotfas (Blanco, Texas / Blanco) flew up to 15th nationally in 4:05.57, good for seventh in Saturday's event.
The trio of Peyton Bohlinger (Mercer Island, Wash. / Mercer Island), Jordyn White (St. Louis, Mo. / Lutheran North) and Joy Areola (Tomball, Texas / Rosehill Christian) each scored points in the women's jumps. Bohlinger's new personal-best 1.49-meter high jump and White's 10.78-meter bound in the triple each landed seventh in their respective events. Areola collected the eighth spot in long jump at 5.31 meters which puts the Tiger newcomer on the bubble of the top-20 in NCAA III while White stands at seventh nationally in the event with her 5.55-meter leap last weekend in the D3 Challenge.
Casey Hampton (Houston, Texas / Westbury Christian) and Daniel D'rovencourt (Fulshear, Texas / Tompkins) finished seventh in the long jump and eighth in pole vault, respectively, for three points on the men's total. D'Rovencourt cleared a personal-best 4.41 meters which stands just outside the top-20 in NCAA III. Hampton remains ninth in the nation in long jump heading into Saturday's events with his 7.13-meter mark from the Trinity Invite.
Gish Sainz (El Paso, Texas / Coronado) led the women in the individual events on the track with a seventh-place run in the 800 meters in a time of 2:27.26 to round out Trinity's scoring performances on the women's side.
Cooper Tyler (Austin, Texas / Anderson) tossed the javelin a personal-best 49.74 meters to lead the throwers in Saturday's action, good for eighth in the event to go along with a ninth-place high jump. Kierra Francois (Rosharon, Texas / Arlington) and Robert Slaybaugh (Missouri City, Texas / Elkins) each posted a pair of top-15 heaves in both the discus and hammer throw. Francois finished 11th in discus (36.37m), 14th in hammer (39.85m) while Slaybaugh collected 12th in hammer (45.81m) and 14th in discus (42.33m).
Trinity Track and Field returns to San Antonio to take part in the University of the Incarnate Word Invitational next weekend, starting Friday, April 8. Two weeks later, the Tigers will play host to the 2022 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, April 23-24.
