Lamar sports information

NATCHITOCHES, La. — Taking three more medals and having six student-athletes qualify for the finals on Sunday, Lamar’s track and field team kept a hold on its respective positions on the leaderboard. The Cardinals got a win in the women’s heptathlon, captured second in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, and came in third in the men’s triple jump while qualifying for the men’s and women’s 1,500-meters, the women’s 400-meter hurdles, the men’s 400-meter dash, and the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

Migle Muraskaite finished off the women’s heptathlon with a dominating performance in the final three events. The sophomore from Vilnius, Lithuania, entered the day near the top of the standings after she got second in the shot put with a 11.92-meter toss, second in the high jump by clearing 1.61 meters, ninth in the 100-meter hurdles with a 15.04, and 10th in the 200-meter dash with a 26.41. Muraskaite then took first in the 800-meters with a time of 2:15.53, first in the javelin throw with a distance of 41.19 meters, and ninth in the long jump with a mark of 5.31 meters. She won the heptathlon with a total of 5,221 points, besting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Sashane Hanson by 20 points.

Matthew Arnold got the second podium of the day in the men’s steeplechase. He ran a 9:06.27 to take second, a full three seconds ahead of UCA’s Jaron Hamilton in third. Javon McCray got the final medal of the day with a third-place finish in the men’s triple jump. The junior from Killeen hit his best mark of the day, 49 feet, 8.4 inches, on his third of six attempts. That trailed second place Quindarrius Thompson by just a little over an inch.

Qualifiers included Jordan Rowe (second, 3:59.74) and Jack Gooch (fourth, 3:59.96) in the men’s 1,500-meters, Katie Buckley (second, 4:46.39) in the women’s 1,500-meters, Webster Slaughter (fourth, 47.95) in the men’s 400-meter dash, Ruta Okulic-Kazarinaite (sixth, 1:02.32) in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, and Paula Sprudzane (eighth, 14:36) in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

The final day of events will begin at 10 a.m. today.