REBELS TRAVEL TO TUCSON FOR DESERT HEAT CLASSIC
The UNLV track & field will head to the Grand Canyon State for the Arizona hosted Desert Heat Classic. The one-day meet will take place Saturday at Roy P. Drachman Stadium.
In addition to the Rebels and host Wildcats, the meet will feature Bradley, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado, CSUN, Grand Canyon, Idaho, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Sacramento State, San Diego State, Utah, UTEP and Washington.
Action gets underway at 10 a.m. with the women’s pole vault and runs through 10 p.m. with the men’s 4x400m relay. In all, there will be a total of 19 events on the women’s side of competition – 13 track and 11 field.
The Rebels will see 21 individuals compete on Saturday. Among those competing are Breanna Blanks, Jayda Bushay, Gabriella Caldwell, Sophia Clark, Grace Cunningham, Kaelin Gowdy, Sadia Green, Krishna Jayasankar, Jada Lujan, Malika Mashack, Aja Melo-Powell, Chinyere Okoro, Claire Rands, Juliana Roberson, Natalia Ruiz, Alana Sangprasit, Roxene Simpson, Autumn Viscardo, Eva Walker, Madelynn Wattles and Lauryn Williams.
LAST TIME OUT: The Scarlet & Gray are returning after eight sprinters participated in the 129th Penn Relays. The Rebels earned spots in the 4x100m Relay and 100m Hurdles Championship of American finals. In the 4×100-meter Relay, the quartet of Okoro, Kennedi Porter, Bushay and Jaydea Carter blazed their way to a sixth-place showing of 45.15 seconds. Carter returned for the 100m hurdle finals, where she clocked in a 13.65, also securing sixth place.
MOUNTAIN WEST LEADERS: The Rebels have a handful of student-athletes positioned in the top 15 in the Mountain West rankings. Porter (11.56), Maitland (11.71) and Caldwell are second, tied for sixth and 13th, respectively, in the 100m. Porter sits first in the 200m (23.04), while Carter is seventh (23.62) in the same event. Additionally, Carter’s 13.38 time in the 100m hurdles is second overall. Furthermore, Lacarthea Cooper ranks 13th in the 400m (55.54).
In the field events, Grace Cunningham is third in the high jump (1.76m, 5′ 9.25″). Juliana Roberson sits fifth in the triple jump (12.39m, 40′ 7.75″). In the shot put, Krishna Jayasankar is fourth in the shot put (15.87m, 52′ 1″) and Roxene Simpson sits 14th (13.14m, 43′ 1.5″). Jayasankar is fifth in the discus (51.56m, 169′ 5″), while Simpson ranks seventh (49.43m, 162′ 2″). Moreover, Sophia Clark sits 12th in the discus with a mark of 40.72m (133′ 7″). The 4x100m Relay team of Chinyere Okoro, Porter, AnnaKay Maitland and Carter moved into a tie for first among the conference leaderboard with their 44.29 time at the Mt. SAC Relays.
To get updates on all things Rebel track & field, links to the season’s meets can be found on the team’s schedule page. You can also get live updates on how the Scarlet & Gray are faring on the team’s X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram accounts.