Lafayette, La. – Competing in their second outdoor meet of the season, the Southern Arkansas University Men's and Women's Track & Field teams traveled to south Louisiana to compete in the Louisiana Classics, hosted by University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The two squads left the Cajun State with 32 individual top 15 finishes combined and one new school record. The men earned 21 top 15 finishes with spectacular performances from La'Dainian Hendrix, Jaime Quinones, Rob Kraus, Ja'Kamron Zackery and Kris Shumaker. The Mulerider women claimed 11 top 15 spots for themselves with showings from Dakota Cassidy, Shardanay LaMark, and Devlin Rivera. 
 
To start out with the men, the 4x100m relay team (Christian Mosley, William Vickery, Bryson Johnson, and Travon Johnson) started out fast and finished just the same as they obtained the third-place spot in the relay after having a time of 41.56. The Muleriders took down several Division I schools in the race including Lamar, McNeese State "A &B" team.
 
Leading SAU in the 200m dash was Hendrix who gained the 14th position out of 67 with a personal record 21.76. Hendrix would also have a personal record time of 10.77 in the 100m dash, earning him the 15th spot out of 46 competitors. 
 
Shumaker earned himself a personal record of 51.79m in the javelin throw which earned him sixth place and also it sits him atop the SAU record book. Shumaker's throw of 169' 11" breaks the old school record of 167" 6" which was held by Richard Barkhimer.
 
For the hurdle events there were three top 15 finishers. There was one in the 110m hurdles and two in the 400m hurdles. In the 110m hurdles was freshman Brandon Sofi and who notched a PR time of 15.43. to finish in 11th place out of 23. The two Muleriders to finish top 15 in the 400m hurdles were sophomore Sid Hampton and Sofi. Hampton placed 12th in the event with a time of 1:01.75 while at 15th was Sofi with his time of 1:09.30.
 
The steeplechase event saw no anomalies as Jaime Quinones earned 4th place with his new PR time of 10:02.43. 
 
The 5000m saw two SAU runners crack the top ten with Kraus and Jorge Sanchez. Kraus gained 3rd place after recording a time of 15:24.46, while Sanchez earned his own top ten finish at the nine spot with his time of 16:43.72.
 
The Muleriders recorded nine top ten finishes in throwing events as they were led by Zackery, Shumaker, Traveon Scott, Carson Nichols, and Micheal Jones. Zackery earned three of the nine top ten spots with his performances in the discus (third place, 46.88m), hammer throw (13th place, 42.39m (PR)), and the shot put (eighth place, 14.68m(PR)).
 
Along with Zackery was Nichols, finishing 15th in the discus throw (39.35m (PR) and in the hammer throw (42.02m (PR)). Scott earned a top ten spot in the discus throw (seventh place, 42.56m (PR)) and in the shot put (tenth place, 14.03m (PR)). Jones gained the 14th place spot in the shot put event with a toss of 13.14m. 
 
To cap off the individual events for the men were the four top 15 finishes in the jumping events. Derrick Onyeador earned himself a top 15 finish in both the high jump (ninth place, 1.85m) and long jump (13th place, 6.52m (PR)). Next on the list is Carter Duncan who earned a 14^th place finish in the long jump after having a leap of 6.43m. Chauncey Blake earned eighth in the triple jump with his distance of 13.05m. 
 
To kick it off for the women was Dakota Cassidy in the 5000m after she worked for the third-place position with her new personal record time of 19:40.81. 
 
More top 15 finishes were seen in the 400m hurdles as Kaliyah Thompson and Aaliyah Thompson were neck and neck with each other. Kaliyah earned the 14th spot with her time of 1:10.84. Right behind her was her sister Aaliyah in 15th with a time of 1:11.37.
 
LaMark went and showed out in Lafayette with in the hammer throw as she set a new personal record of 46.38m. The new PR earned LaMark the seventh-place spot in the hammer throw.
 
The jumping events for the Mulerider women saw seven respective top 15 finishes. Starting things off was Alexis Matlock gaining 11th in the high jump with her height of 1.56m. Along with Matlock was Kelis Boutte and her height of 1.51m earned her the 15th spot in the event. Rivera would earn 14th out of 31 in the long jump after her leap of 5.06m. The pole vault event had both Raylynn Gibbs (ninth) and Payton Fleeman (tenth) crack the top ten. Both competitors would have a vault of 3.10m, which is a new PR for Fleeman. Traylor and Rivera each made the top 15 in the triple jump with Traylor finishing at 14th with a jump of 11.02m, while Rivera finished one spot behind her in 15th with her jump of 10.99m. 
 
The SAU women's 4x100 team 'A' consisting of Amayia Taylor, Jordan Walker, Traylor, and Jasmine Peoples finished eighth with a time of 48.66. Right behind them was team 'B' consisting of Asiya Sabr, Tylaa Berry, Katelynn Hogg, and Trinity Easter finishing ninth with a time of 50.05m 
 
The Muleriders will be back in Magnolia for the highly anticipated Dan Veach Invitational next weekend at the Mulerider Track Complex. Saturday will mark the first time this season for both squads to compete on their own track and field.