EDINBURG — Going into Thursday’s hammer throw, UTRGV redshirt freshman thrower Esmeralda Ruiz’s personal record sat at 162 feet, 4 inches.
On her final throw of the day, Ruiz shattered her record with a mark of 182-10, securing the fourth-farthest throw in program history and earning a second-place finish in the hammer throw at the Western Athletic Conference Championships on at the UTRGV Track and Field Complex.
Ruiz’s toss finished just less than 3 feet behind Grand Canyon’s Samaria McDonald, whose mark of 185-8 earned her the conference title in the event.
“It was definitely a surprise since I was ranked number nine out of sixteen girls,” Ruiz said. “I had three PRs today. My first throw was a PR by a meter. My second one was about a two-meter PR. To be honest, my coach always told me I had it in there. I kind of just trusted. What is there to lose? I’m just a freshman. Honestly, when I saw it was such a big throw, I was expecting a 52 (meter) or 53 (meter), maybe. When I heard I threw 55.73 meters, I was like, ‘What? Was that me?’ It was something exciting.”
On the men’s side, Vaqueros senior throwers Paul May and Christian Gardner-Hall took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots on the podium in the hammer throw, respectively, with Grand Canyon’s Jorden Okyere taking home the gold with a throw of 193-2.
May, who scratched on five of his six throws, earned second place with a toss of 187-7 inches on his only valid throw of the day. Meanwhile, Hall-Gardner finished No. 3 with a mark of 175 feet, 4 inches.
While the throwers brought in the hardware, UTRGV senior decathlete Anthony Magallon put together a solid first day in the decathlon, finishing in third after the first five events.
In total, Magallon scored 3,540 points, including a first-place in the high jump with a jump of 6-3.5 and a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.93 seconds. In front of Magallon are Grand Canyon’s Aidan Diggs and Utah Valley’s Josh Rudder with 3,662 and 3,597 points, respectively.
While he is happy with his Day 1 performance, Magallon knows the work isn’t done yet, already looking forward to Friday.
“I feel pretty good considering I just started the decathlon this year,” Magallon said. “I definitely wanted to capitalize on some other events, but it was good enough I think. And, well you know, tomorrow, the same thing as today. I’m going to go out there and give it my all. It’s all about your best. You give your best the day of and that’s all you really can do.
At the end of the first day of the event, Grand Canyon sits atop the women’s overall team standings with 38 points. Holding the No. 2 and No. 3 spots are New Mexico State with 33 points and Utah Valley with 15 points.
Meanwhile, Grand Canyon ranks No. 1 in the men’s standings with 63 points followed by a tie for second between UTRGV and Utah Valley with 22 points each, not including the results of the Men’s 10,000-meter run.
The WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship is set to resume action at 9:30 a.m. today with the conclusion of the decathlon and heptathlon, followed by the field events at noon and track events at 5 p.m.
