BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA – School records fell in the men's indoor weight throw and in the women's 60 meter hurdles as Ty McDaniel and Makenzie Hale got to put their names down in the history books.
 
Hale was the first Patriots athlete on the track on Friday morning and ran an 8.8 second mark in the 60 meter hurdles to place her immediately into the semifinals. She followed that time with an even quicker 8.7 second run in the semi-finals to equal the best time in UT Tyler history.
 
In the finals, Hale would finally break the school record, running a time of 8.64 and earning a third place finish in the event. Hale would just fall two a pair of Division I athletes on the day in a highly competitive event.
 
McDaniel was a part of the first field events of the competition, competing in the indoor weight throw. After leading off with a throw of 16.29 meters, McDaniel steadily got better, moving to 16.92 and then 17.1 meters before his fifth throw. That fifth throw was the right one, as he launched the weight 17.68 meters and himself into second place in the competition. That mark clears his previous school record by .39 meters.
 
The two other field athletes for the Patriots were Abeni Kratzmeyer and Olivia Mitchell, who each took on the pole vault. Mitchell would clear a height of 3.40 meters, earning herself a tie for 13^th. Kratzmeyer put up strong numbers, and capped off her day at a height of 3.70 meters to earn fourth place.
 
Asante Fazarro and Nathan Williams each competed in the 60 meter sprint, and the pair would move into the semifinal round after placing 13^th and 16^th in the prelims. However, their runs would come up just shy in the semi-final round, as Fazarro posted a 7.10 second run and Williams finished at 6.99 seconds to come up just a few hundredths short of the 6.92 needed to get into the finals.
 
In the women's 3000 meters, Marigold Hunter continued off the back of a strong cross country season with an equally strong debut on the track for the Patriots. Hunter ran a time of 11:03.88 to place seventh overall in the event.
 
Ashton Turner and Brandon Arenas got their events going in a big way with strong runs in the 60 meter hurdle prelims as they posted third and sixth place runs. Turner nearly took down the school record at 8.21 seconds while Arenas followed at 8.41 seconds.
 
Those times got the pair into the finals, where Turner posted a fifth place finish with a time of 8.35 seconds and Arenas finished in eighth at 8.49 seconds.
 
Another top 10 finish came the Patriots way in the form of Tiffany Vargas taking down the 1 mile run. Vargas posted a time of 5:31.8 to finish in 10^th place and just over 13 seconds behind the top five.
 
Vargas would be joined by Turner, who posted his second top 10 of the day after placing ninth overall in the 400 meters. Turner ran a time of 49.84, and just lost out on seventh place by one one-hundredth of a second.
 
Freshman William Davis would make his debut for UT Tyler a memorable one, as he posted a second place finish in the 800 meters. His time of 1:53.99 finished just four tenths off of the top spot, and cleared third place by over a second.
 
The final two top 10 finishes of the day went to Marissa Agee and Hale, who earned those marks in the 800 meters and the 200 meters, respectively. Agee looked in fine form, posting a ninth place run with a time of 2:21.96. That mark finished less than a second behind fourth place, and was just under two seconds behind her own school record.
 
Hale followed up her tremendous performance in the 60 meter hurdles with a 10^th place run in the 200 meters. Her time of 25.80 finished less than a second out of second place on the day.
 
Next up for UT Tyler track & field will be just over a month off as they get semester break and finals week thrown their way. They will be back in action January 13 and 14 at the Texas Tech Corky Classic in Lubbock, Texas in an event that will give them their first look at the Lone Star Conference Championships venue.