Bobcats Head to Louisiana for 2022 Sun Belt Outdoor Championships

Staff Reports

SAN MARCOS – Texas State track and field is set to compete at the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships this weekend, with a shot at capturing the title in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

The Bobcats and the rest of the Sun Belt schools will head to Home Bank Soccer and Track Facility in Lafayette, La. for the three-day meet. All three days of competition can be watched on ESPN+.

The 2022 Championships will start on Thursday with the men’s decathlon at 9 a.m., followed by the women’s heptathlon at 9:30 a.m. The women’s hammer throw will start at noon, and the men’s hammer throw will follow at 2:30 p.m.

Day 1 will also include the women’s javelin (3 p.m.), men’s javelin (5:30 p.m.) and the women’s 10,000 meters (8:30 p.m.). The men’s 10,000 meters is set for 9:15 p.m. for the final competition for the day.

On Friday, events will include the long jump, women’s high jump, shot put, and 3K steeplechase as well as the preliminary rounds for the hurdles, 100 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and 800 meter run.

All other events and finals will take place on Saturday, with the awards ceremony scheduled for 7:30 pm.

Texas State is a three-time winner of the Sun Belt outdoor team championships, including twice by the women (2017, 2018) and once by the men (2019). Both squads are coming off runner-up finishes at the Sun Belt indoors this past February under the direction of first-year Director of Track & Field/Cross Country John Frazier.

For the men’s team, 13 different Bobcats are among the leading qualifiers in the Sun Belt in the 17 events. Dominick Yancy enters the weekend with the fastest time in the conference in the 400 meters (45.87) while Kwanele Mthembu is the top qualifier in the 10,000 meters (28:50.02). Both the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams have the top marks in the respective events as well. In field events, Will Blaser is leading the way in the shot put (18.08m).

Pedro Osorio Lopez (800 meter) and Mthembu (10K) are defending their conference outdoor championships this week. Osorio Lopez’s season-best of 1:51.65 enters the weekend fourth among Sun Belt athletes.

The women also have 13 athletes among the top qualifiers. Alyssa Wilson leads in the hammer throw, shot put, and discus while Katherine Stuckly (high jump) and Lee-Anne Blake (1500 meters) are second in their events.

Blake is looking to improve upon her third-place finishes in the 1500 meters and 5000 meters from last season.

Wilson, in her first year at Texas State as a graduate transfer, last won a conference outdoor title in 2019 when she captured the Pac-12 championship in the discus when she was at UCLA.

Last outdoor season, Texas finished third in the men’s team scores (123 points) and fourth in the women’s (90.5). The men had nine podium finishes and the women had six.

In the seven years in which Texas State has competed in the Sun Belt outdoor championships, both the men’s and women’s teams have only finished outside the top-three once (2014 for the men, 2021 for the women).