Elijah Jefferson (center) photo courtesy of Russell Kramer, SCAC

Posted: Mar 27, 2023

Bulldogs Quartet Set School Records; Men's Track & Field Wins Five Events at D3 Challenge

SEGUIN, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran men's track and field program won five events during its lone home meet, the D3 Challenge, on Saturday.

For the second consecutive season, Ezra Acero (San Antonio/Harlan) won the pole vault at the D3 Challenge behind a record setting performance - breaking his own program record with a mark of 4.80m. Acero now ranks second in all of NCAA Division-III in the event.

The field events stayed hot with Gerrit Twitero (McQueeney/Seguin), fresh off a record setting indoor season, breaking his own program record by clearing 2.02m on Saturday to finish second. The mark also ranks second in all of NCAA Division-III. Freshman Dalon Harris would lead a Bulldogs trio that finished 1-2-3 in the shotput with Harris winning the event with a mark of 14.70m. Andrew Maughn and Riley Denman (Pearland/Pearland) would finish second and third with marks of 13.49m and 13.38m respectively. Weston Geiger (Shiner/St. Paul) finished second in the javelin throw with a mark of 54.41m.

Carlos Cura (Midkiff/Rankin) won the 5000m run with a time 15:53.05 and set a new school record in the 1500m run with a time of 4:05.55 to finish third in the event.

Elijah Jefferson (San Antonio/Construction Careers Academy) swept the 100m and 200m dashes behind two record breaking performances. Jefferson, in his first outdoor meet since the NCAA Indoor Championships, won the 100m and 200m dash at the 2023 D3 Challenge with times of 10.48 seconds in the 100m and 21.05 seconds in the 200m dash - both new school records. The previous 100m record (10.43 seconds) held by Darren Jones was a wind-aided record while Jefferson's time was wind-legal.

Jefferson now ranks third nationally in the 100m and second nationally in the 200m. Jefferson also anchored the TLU 4x100 squad that finished third at the D3 Challenge with a time of 42.05 seconds - ranking 12th nationally.

Also in sprints, Bryce Powell-Chimene (Dayton/Dayton) finished second in the 400m dash with a time of 49.59 seconds.

Full Results: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/77950/D3_Challenge

Coach Holland's Comments: "We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to compete! The distance runners were blessed in the morning with cool temperatures and then the sprinters, jumpers and throwers had warm temperatures with wind legal readings to make for a GREAT day!

On the men's side, so many personal records and high national rankings. Elijah broke the school records in the 100 and 200 AND it's early in the season!!! Ezra broke his own outdoor school record from last year in the pole vault. Gerrit broke his own school record from last year in the high jump. Carlos broke the school record in the 1,500 (formerly Caleb Calderon 4:06.62 from 2018). Again, so many personal bests in the competitions! The men's shot put was impressive as well, going 1-2-3 in finishes. I was definitely proud of how everyone performed! We have big goals and everyone is working hard to make them happen!

We hope to get a number of athletes into the meet this coming weekend at Texas State. It is set to be a very large meet this year in conjunction with Texas Relays in nearby Austin. It will be a great opportunity to show our talents on the D1 level."

Up next, Texas Lutheran travels to San Marcos for the Bobcat Invitational hosted by Texas State, March 30-April 1. For all updates on Texas Lutheran Track and Field, follow @tluthrows and @tluxctf on Instagram as well as as all official TLU Athletics accounts. All schedule updates can be found on tlubulldogs.com.