CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M will host the Jo Meaker Classic & Multi on April 4-5 at the WTAMU Track & Field Complex in Canyon, Texas. The three-day meet will feature over 400 athletes from 15 schools. 

The meet is scheduled to begin on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. with the Decathlon and Heptathlon. Live results will be posted on GoBuffsGo.com, along with a live stream for the second day of the Jo Meaker Classic & Mutli. 

JO MEAKER CLASSIC & MULTI

The Buff and Lady Buff Track and Field program will field a full squad for the Jo Meaker Classic and Multi with Gerard Bryant, Romet Vahter, Allen Henderson, Elliot Harrison, Laiten Greeson and Maryn Noble starting things off Thursday at 11 a.m in the decathlon and heptathlon. The 10-event multis will compete across Thursday and Friday morning.   

Field events will kick off in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday with throwing events then jumps will follow at 4:30 p.m. Track events will start at 6:00 p.m. For the Friday start field events will go at 12:00 p.m. with sprints to start at 2:30 p.m. WT Thundervision will broadcast Friday from 1:30 p.m. to the final event of the 1600m relay at 6:50 p.m. 

The No. 4 Lady Buffs and No. 14 Buffs will see Isaac Botsio in the sprints and relays along with Jerry Jakpa who's making his outdoor debut this season. Luke Holcombe and Ethan Hollinshead along with the rest of the throws squad will be in all throwing events. Hamdi Ali and Seniru Amarasinghe will take on the high jump. Miriam Zanovello and Kailee Benton with Joseph Oreva and Cecil Dosoo will be in the long jump. Zanovello and Benton will compete in the triple jump with Manuel Cuesta as well. WT's relay teams will compete in the 4x100 and 4x400 in both the men's and women's divisions. 

WT will have some unattached runners competing including Quinton Sansing, Brien Pittman, Ohdel James and Joseph Manu. 

TOP-15 IN THE NATION

The Lady Buffs continue to stay in the top-5 at No. 4 in the nation with nation leading 4x100 relay (45.05) and 5,000m (16:00.14) times. The Lady Buffs have 6 top-10 national marks and 3 top-5 marks. 

The Buffs jumped up four spots to No. 14 after a successful weekend at the Texas Relays. Isaac Botsio ran in the 100m finals and claimed the third fastest time this season (10.28). Joseph Oreva continues to stay in the top-5 in long jump and Luke Holcombe in the top-10 for the Buffs.  

ENDING INDOOR ON A HIGH NOTE

The Buffs finished as fourth in the nation while the Lady Buffs finished fifth in the nation at the NCAA Division II Indoor National Championship. Both teams finished better than their predicted finish through the USTFCCCA rankings that had the Buffs at fifth and the Lady Buffs at seventh. 

Multiple awards were earned by the program with 40 WT studrent-athletes earning Lone Star Conference All-Conference. William Amponsah was named Most Outstanding Indoor Men's Track Athlete; Florance Uwajeneza and Isaac Botsio were named LSC Women's and Men's Track Athletes of the year for their National Champion and National Runner-up finishes at the NCAA DII Indoor Championship. 

Director of Track and Field Matt Stewart earned LSC Men's and Women's Coach of the Year as well as South Central Regional Men's Coach of the Year. Head Cross Country/Distance Coach Zach Daniel earned his first South Central Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year honors. 

UP NEXT

West Texas A&M will be split with distance traveling to the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azuza, California. The highly competitive distance meet is one of the best in the nation and where many Buffs and Lady Buffs have hit personal best and top marks. The throwing crew will travel to the Ross Black Open in New Mexico where we'll see a full throws team compete. Both meets will be from April 11-13.