SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Lucy Ndungu claimed the Shockers' first podium finish of the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, finishing second in a dramatic 10,000 meters Friday at Park West Athletic Complex.
 
In the first race of the day, Lucy Ndungu took a tumble in 17th lap of the 10,000 meters and had get up and fight about 15 meters to get back up into the front of lead pack. Ndungu suffered a similar fate in the 5,000 meters at the AAC Indoor Championships in February when she got knocked off the track, fought back into the race to finish fourth but was ultimately disqualified for being off the track. This time, she battled right back into the race and fought for the silver in a race to the finish with Charlotte's Lauren Johnston. Ndungu out-leaned the 49er by .03 seconds to take second. Tulsa's Chloe Hershenow claimed gold in the race.
 
"That was an emotional race for me to watch because of what happened to Lucy at the indoor championship.," head coach Steve Rainbolt said. "Worse than the 15 meters [that she lost] is the toll that it takes on your body to fall and have to scramble back up. It's a major struggle to recover and collect yourself and get back into a race like that, and she did. She battled right back up toward the front and then was in a race at the end, and she fought so hard. I was not able to contain my emotions at the end of that race because it was such a valiant effort."
 
Ndungu earned all-conference recognition for her performance, her first AAC track and field all-conference recognition after being named all-conference in cross country in the fall. She is the first female Shocker since Winny Koskei in 2019 to be named all-conference in the 10,000 meters.
 
In the hammer, Creighton Camp and Beau Kerschen threw personal bests to place fourth and fifth, respectively. Camp threw 58.21m/190'11" and Kerschen threw 55.79m/183'0" to score a total of nine points.
 
The men's javelin squad scored 10 points with Blake McCormick throwing a season-best 57.55m/188'9" to place fourth, Jordan Rider taking fifth with a throw of 57.42m/188'4" and Luke Porter taking eighth with a season-best throw of 54.19m/177'9".
 
After completing day one of the heptathlon, Tess Roman made it to the javelin final where she threw a personal-best 44.02m/144'5" to place sixth and score three points for the team.
 
Four Shockers advanced to Sunday's running event finals. Lea Jerkovic took third in her heat and fifth overall in the 1500 meters prelims, running a season-best 4:35.36 to auto qualify for the final. Adam Rzentkowski also qualified to the 1500 meters final, getting in on time with a personal-best 3:52.84.
 
Jason Parrish ran another personal best in the 400-meter hurdles, clocking 51.53, the fourth-fastest time of the day and seventh-fastest time in Shocker history. Bryan Haney will join him in Sunday's final after running the sixth-fastest time of the day, 52.02.
 
Heptathlon – Day 1
Destiny Masters opened the competition with the second-fastest heptathlon 100-meter hurdles time, running 13.84W, and Kenisa Meyer ran the third-fastest time of 14.01W. Rice's Eliza Kraule ran 13.49W to take the heptathlon lead.
 
Masters went on to break her own previous meet record in the heptathlon high jump before Rice's Alice Taylor raised the bar and set a new one at 1.91m/6'3.25". Masters cleared a new outdoor personal best of 1.85m/6'0.75" to improve her mark at No. 2 all-time in Shocker history. Masters took the lead from Kraule, going up by 24 points.
 
Kraule gained on her a little in the shot put as Masters threw 11.90m/39'0.5" fourth-farthest throw of the day, and Kraule threw12.10m/39'8.5", cutting Masters' lead to 10 points. Meyer threw 11.25m/36'11" for the fifth-best throw of the day and moved into seventh overall.
 
To wrap up day one of the heptathlon, Sadie Millard won the 200 meters with the 10^th-fastest time in Shocker history, clocking a 24.15. Millard moved into sixth overall after day one, Masters sits in second, 38 points back from Kraule, Meyer is in seventh, Abby Klipstein is in 14^th and Tess Roman is in 15^th.
 
Decathlon – Day 1
Adria Navajon ran a windy 10.61 (+5.6) in the decathlon 100 meters to take an early 82-point lead in the decathlon and went on to jump a wind-aided 7.50m/24'7.25" to record the best mark of the day in the decathlon long jump and extend his lead to 179 points. Rice's Vincent Arousell closed the gap to 13 points after the shot put and took a 13-point lead after high jump. Luke Czarnecki won the decathlon high jump with an outdoor personal-best clearance of 2.00m/6'6.75" to move up to fifth overall. Hudson Bailey wrapped day one with the second-fastest 400 meters time of the day, running 50.64 to move up to third overall. Navajon finished the day in second place, 115 points behind Arousell. Czarnecki sits in sixth after day one, Luke Porter is in ninth and Tanner Brown is in 10^th.

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TEAM STANDINGS AFTER DAY 1
MEN
1. Rice                                 37
2. Tulsa                              20
3. Wichita State             19
4. Charlotte                     18
5. North Texas                11
6. Tulane                           6
7. UTSA                               3
8. Memphis                      2
9. East Carolina              1
 
WOMEN
1. Rice                                20
2. Tulsa                              15
3. Charlotte                     14
4. North Texas                12
5. East Carolina              11
5. Wichita State             11
7. Memphis                      9
7. South Florida              9
9. SMU                               5
9. Tulane                           5
9. UTSA                              5
12. UAB                              1