PITTSBURG, KANSAS – On the opening day of the UT Tyler track and field season, the Patriots put together a trio of top 20 finishes in the women's pentathlon at the Boo Rogers Multi hosted by Pittsburg State.
Aerin Thompson led the Patriots with a sixth place finish and 3,662 total points while Julian Frueh placed 13
th and
Meelika Toom finished 18
th with 3,351 and 3,048 points, respectively.
It took just a few hours for the Patriots to snap yet another school record, as Thompson rewrote the books for the women's high jump. She nailed a height of 1.69 meters on her way to a tie atop the event leaderboard and 842 crucial points.
That performance may have arguably been her second best run, as she also took home the top spot in the 800 meter event by over two seconds in a dominant run of 2:18.69 and 841 points to her name.
Those two events gave Thompson a huge boost, as she also tacked on a 6
th place finish in the long jump event while posting a 17
th place run in the 60 meter hurdles and a 17
th place finish in the shot put.
For Thompson, the 1.69 mark in the high jump launches her into NCAA provisional territory, and her point total of 3,662 also gives her a provisional mark.
Juliane Frueh, a freshman from Munich, Germany, missed out on the top 10 by just 53 points after a balanced effort in her first collegiate meet. She also excelled at the high jump, placing 5
th overall with a jump of 1.63 meters.
She followed that effort up with top 10 finishes in both the shot put and the 800 meters on her way to 3,351 points.
For
Meelika Toom, she too competed in her first ever collegiate event on Friday and performed admirably on the way to an 18
th place run and 3,048 points. The freshman from Tallinn, Estonia placed 16
th in both the 60 meter hurdles and the shot put, but put her best effort of the day into the high jump as she placed 9
th overall at a mark of 1.60 meters.
Thompson would place fourth overall amongst LSC competitors, while Frueh finished sixth and Toom seventh against LSC foes.
Next up for the Patriots trio will the Crimson & Gold Invite that takes place on Saturday at Pittsburg State.
