BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Earning a spot on the 2014 All-Sun Belt Conference First-Team, junior Isaac Grieder broke the school record with a first-place score in the heptathlon to headline the ULM track & field program’s performance at the SBC Indoor Championships on Tuesday.
The men finished in seventh place while the women took 10th at the Birmingham CrossPlex. ULM increased its point total from last season by nine points on the men’s side and seven points for the women.
“Good effort by our kids. Of course you never like finishing out of the top slot, but I was proud of the way our kids competed. Particularly Dusan [Makevic], Isaac [Grieder], Nigel [Cribbs] and Martin [Solomon],” said ULM head coach J.D. Malone.
Grieder won the seven-event heptathlon with a school record 5310 points. His first-place total was more than 200 points greater than the second-place finisher. It also topped the previous school record of 5,187 set in 2009 by Isaac Combs.
The Garland, Texas native set personal-records in five of the seven events over the two days. He posted times of 7.05 and 8.57 in the 60m and 60m hurdles, respectively. Grieder won the shot put with a 13.26m toss and also set personal-records in the long jump (6.65m) and the high jump (1.88m).
ULM had a pair of athletes pick up points in the men’s mile as junior Hillary Kirwa finished fifth and sophomore Dusan Makevic took sixth. Kirwa clocked in at a season-best of 4:16.19 while Makevic stopped the timer at 4:17.11.
Makevic then followed it up with a fourth-place showing in the 5000m with a personal-record time of 14:46.05 to tally five more points for ULM. He came just 0.31 seconds away from winning the event. Kirwa notched a top-10 time of 15:09.50, one-half second away from his personal-record.
Senior Martin Solomon earned sixth-place overall in the finals of the 60m hurdles. He recorded a time of 8.29 which was his exact time in the preliminaries. His performance earned ULM three points.
In the final of the 400m, sophomore Nigel Cribbs raced for a seventh-place finish of 49.87 to secure two points for the Warhawks.
ULM closed out the men’s side with a fourth-place time of 3:19.24 in the 4x400m relay to grab five points. It was run by Cribbs, Solomon, junior Jamel Sams and sophomore Andrew Tate.
On the women’s side, junior Teona Glave registered a fifth-place time of 2:14.98 in the finals of the 800m to grab four points. Glave broke her own school record in the event in the preliminaries with a time of 2:14.83.
The Warhawks turned in a sixth-place finish in the women’s 4x400m relay with a time of 3:58.45. The team of Glave, sophomores Brittany Miller and Ke’Andrea Wilson and freshman Adriunna Brown earned three points for the program with their season-best time.
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Men's Team Scores
1. UT Arlington - 185 pts
2. WKU – 149 pts
3. Texas State - 79 pts
4. South Alabama – 76.66 pts
5. Arkansas State – 74.33 pts
6. UL-Lafayette – 46 pts
7. ULM - 44 pts
8. UALR - 8 pts
Women's Team Scores
1. WKU - 169 pts
2. Texas State - 121 pts
3. Arkansas State – 78.5 pts
4. UL-Lafayette - 75 pts
5. Georgia State - 70 pts
6. UT Arlington – 69.5 pts
7. South Alabama - 52 pts
8. UALR - 13 pts
9. Troy - 8 pts
10. ULM - 7 pts