WICHITA, Kan. — Southwestern men's and women's track & field opened the new year on Saturday morning at the Friends University First-Chance Qualifier inside the Heskett Center.

On the men's side, Christopher Collier-Surly led the Builders in the 60 meters, finishing in 7.13 seconds in the preliminaries. Dominique Orosco followed with a 7.25, while Ben Patowski clocked 7.29. Orosco also competed in the 400 meters and posted a time of 53.29.

In distance events, Derek Ponce-Gonzales placed sixth in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:41.40, while Jamell Sanchez finished in 11:17.38. Manuel Reyes competed in the 60-meter hurdles, running 9.09 in preliminaries and 9.02 in the finals. In field events, J.J. Crawford recorded a mark of 6.12 meters (20 feet, 1 inch) in the long jump and added a 13.07-meter (42-10.75) effort in the triple jump. Lyrix Howard competed in the high jump but did not record a height.

For the women, Abigail Eckert represented Southwestern in the 60 meters, running 8.73 seconds in the preliminaries. Lauryn Peterson competed in the mile and finished in 7:04.94. In the throwing events, Malia Pearson placed 10th in the shot put with a mark of 10.70 meters (35-1.25), while Vanessa Mendoza recorded an 11.99-meter (39-4) throw in the weight throw.

Southwestern returns to competition later this month at the NAIA/JUCO Challenge hosted by Pittsburg State University on January 24th.