Wildcats off to good start

ACU provisionally qualifies 11 athletes, 3 relay teams

The Abilene Christian men's and women's track and field teams got their respective indoor seasons off to a good start over the weekend as they provisionally qualified 11 athletes and three relays for the NCAA Division II indoor championship meet in March.

The majority of ACU's teams ran Friday at the Wes Kittley All-Comers Classic at Texas Tech, while a selected few athletes and relay teams competed Friday and Saturday at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.

At the meet in Lubbock, the men qualified seven athletes in five events with Yevgen Pashchenko (24-9.00 in the long jump), Ben Washington (50-0.50 in the triple jump), Cory Aguilar (16-1.25 in the pole vault) and Delt Cockrell (48.66 in the 400 meters) winning their respective events. Newcomer Vladyslav Gorbenko finished second in the triple jump, but his mark of 48-0.75 was good enough to provisionally qualify.

Marvin Bien-Aime (21.34) and Elton Garus-Oab (21.55) were second and third, respectively, to qualify for the national meet in the 200 meters.

On the women's side, Angie Aguilar (Cory’s wife) won the pole vault with a mark of 12-5.50 to provisionally qualify for the national meet. The women's 4x400 meter relay won the event with a provisional qualifying time of 3:52.20.

At Arkansas, the men’s distance medley relay team finished third with a provisional qualifying time of 9:50.26.  Lucky Hadebe (4:12.10) and Marvin Essor (48.36) were each eighth in the mile and 400 meters, respectively, to post provisional qualifying times.

On the women's side, Brooklyn Hunt ran a 25.26 to provisionally qualify in the 200 meters, and the distance medley relay team posted a provisional qualifying time of 12.17.93.