Tech men's cast of transfers leads way early at Big 12 meet
While many others have complained about the athlete movement brought about by the NCAA transfer portal, Texas Tech track and field coach Wes Kittley has done nothing but capitalize on it.
When the Red Raiders won the Big 12 men's indoor championship in February, transfers contributed a bushel of points.
They're showing up again in the early going of the Big 12 outdoor championships this weekend in Norman, Oklahoma. Tech's Garrett Wade took third in the javelin throw on the last event Friday night, Kaithon McDonald got third in the high jump Saturday afternoon and Joe Keys finished second in the decathlon.
Wade is a second-year transfer from Eastern Michigan, and McDonald and Keys joined the Red Raiders this season from Maryland and Marquette, respectively.
Wade's best mark in the javelin was 212 feet, 9 inches. McDonald led a 3-4-6 showing for the Tech men in the high jump, good for 13 1/2 points. McDonald and fourth-place finisher Caleb Wilborn from Coronado cleared 6-11 and Omamuyovwi Erhire topped out at 6-9. Erhire is another first-year transfer, from Middle Tennessee State.
Keys became the Red Raiders' highest scorer in the meet's early going when he was the runner-up in the decathlon. The fifth-year senior from Downers Grove, Illinois, scored 7,697 points, a personal record. Before coming to Tech, Keys was a second-team all-American at the 2021 NCAA outdoor and the 2022 NCAA indoor and won one Big East Conference title apiece in the decathlon and the heptathlon.
Sunday is the final day of the three-day Big 12 meet at Oklahoma's John Jacobs Track and Field Complex.
With eight of 21 events scored on each side, the Texas Tech men were in sixth place with 30 1/2 points and the Tech women were in eighth with 17 points.
When the Tech men won the Big 12 indoor championship in Lubbock, the Red Raiders had the top four and six of the top eight finishers in the 60 meters; the top four and five of the top six in the 60-meter hurdles; and the winner and two other point scorers in the 200 meters. The Red Raiders will try to chart a similar course in Sunday's finals of the sprints and hurdles.
In Saturday preliminaries, Tech had five of the top nine qualifiers for Sunday's' final in the 100 meters: Courtney Lindsey (10.17 seconds), Adam Clayton (10.31), Terrence Jones (10.35), Don'Dre Swint (10.36) and Nylo Clarke (10.44) all advanced with wind-legal times.
In the 110-meter hurdles, Tech had the first, second and fourth qualifiers with Caleb Dean running a personal-record 13.49, Antoine Andrews a wind-assisted 13.57 and Taylor Rooney a 13.62.
Clayton transferred to Tech from Loyola Chicago, Swint from Florida State, Clarke from Missouri, Dean from Maryland and Rooney from Division III Gustavus Adolphus.
Tech middle-distance man Marco Vilca qualified second in the 800 meters with a time of 1 minute, 47.41 seconds.
The Tech women got on the board in the pole vault and the shot put. In the pole vault, Ryleigh Redding (13-3 1/2), Frenship graduate Sarah Tackitt (12-9 1/2) and Olivia Cade (12-9 1/2) finished 3-7-8 for nine points. In the shot put, Field Gatlin (personal record 53-11 1/4) and Malin Smith (53-1) finished fourth and sixth for eight points.
On the women's side, defending champion Demisha Roswell from Tech ran the fastest prelim time in the 100-meter hurdles, a wind-assisted 12.92. She'll be joined in the finals by teammates Naomi Krebs (13.59) and Simone Watkins (13.84).
Tech's Rosemary Chukwuma and Serena Clark advanced in the 100 with wind-assisted times of 10.94 and 11.25, and Nayanna Dubarry-Gay ran a season-best 53.54 in the 400 to advance.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech men's cast of transfers leads way early at Big 12 track and field meet
