TAMPA, Fla. – Creighton Camp and Samantha Marx earned silver medals in the hammer throw and javelin, respectively, to lead the Shockers on day one of the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships.
 
Camp earned the first podium finish of the meet for the Shockers, throwing a personal-best 56.55m/185'6" in the hammer throw to claim the silver medal and score six points for the team.
 
Marx followed that up with a.podium finish of her own, placing second in the javelin with an almost 2-meter personal-best throw of 46.82m/153'7" to score six points for the team. Also in the scoring, Destiny Masters and Emma Bezdek finished seventh (37.76m/123'10") and eighth (37.58m/123'2"), respectively, to score a total of three more points.
 
In the men's javelin, Blake McCormick and Luke Porter scored nine points towards the team total with McCormick throwing 56.39m/185'0" to place fourth and Luke Porter throwing a personal-best 55.35m/181'7" right after completing day one of the decathlon to place fifth.
 
The Shockers sent an athlete to the 1500-meter final in both the men's and women's races with Abeba Sullivan running the seventh-fastest time in school history to clock the third-fastest preliminary time in 4:26.90 and Bryce Merriman running 3:51.16, the fourth-fastest qualifying time.
 
All three men's 400-meter hurdlers advanced to Sunday's final, led by Yuben Goncalves, who ran 52.38 for the fourth-best qualifying time. Toby Penner and Bryan Haney finished fifth and seventh to claim spots in Sunday's final.
 
Prior to the men's and women's 10,000 meters, a lightning storm rolled in and postponed the races to Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.
 
Decathlon
 
Adria Navajon, the reigning conference decathlon champion, opened the multi-event competition with a personal best of 10.82 in the 100 meters to win the event and take the lead with 901 points. Nate Vann ran the second-fastest time in 10.91 for 881 points.
 
Vann pulled ahead after the second event, jumping a personal-best 7.11m/23'4" for the farthest long jump mark of the day. Navajon dropped to third with the third-best long jump (6.90m/22'7.75") behind Cincinnati's Dominique Hall.
 
Vann maintained his lead after three events, throwing 12.49m/40'11.75" for the best shot put mark of the day, while Navajon fell to fourth with Hudson Bailey in fifth.
 
In the high jump, Bailey and Navajon were the final jumpers remaining for three bars before Navajon went out at 2.01m after clearing 1.98m/6'6" and moving up to fourth in the decathlon standings. Bailey cleared five outdoor personal-best bars, ending with a clearance of 2.07m/6'9.5" to earn 868 points and move up to fourth. Vann held on to his lead with a 1.86m/6'1.25" clearance, just eight points ahead of Hall.
 
In the final event of day one, Hall stole the lead as he broke the conference record in the decathlon 400 meters, running 47.86. Vann, Navajon and Bailey finished 2-3-4 in the event with times of 49.58, 49.89 and 49.89, respectively, to finish the day in second, third and fourth.
 
The decathlon athletes return to the track Saturday at 10:30 a.m. for day two, competing in the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500 meters.
 
Heptathlon
 
Masters ran the second-fastest 100-meter hurdles time to open the heptathlon competition, running 13.83 to earn 1,003 points. Her time was faster than the previous conference record in the event as Tulane's Kristen O'Handley set a new record in 13.56.
 
Masters then took the heptathlon lead, breaking the meet record for the heptathlon high jump with a 1.80m/5'10.75" clearance. With a seventh-place finish in the shot put and eighth-place finish in the 200 meters, she dropped to fourth at the end of day one.
 
The heptathlon athletes are set to compete in the long jump, javelin and 800 meters starting Saturday at 11 a.m.

Team Standings
Men

1. Memphis – 36
2. Wichita St. – 17
3. Cincinnati – 10
4. South Florida – 6
5. Tulane – 5
6. Houston – 4

 
Women

1. Cincinnati – 23
2. East Carolina – 13
3. Wichita St. – 11
4. Memphis – 10
5. Houston – 6
6. UCF – 6
7. Tulane – 5
8. SMU - 4