304 Track Talk About! Track Individual Performances Pace Bison Thinclads The 1980 track season was filled with jubilation and disappointment. Jubilation in that many indi vidual performances were spec tacular, yet disappointment because of the dismal fourth place in the Ale track and field championships. The Harding thinclads excelled in distance and field events while the sprints proved to be their weak point. From March 6 to May 24, the tracksters competed in thirteen meets, varying in places from the All-Arkansas Relays held in Searcy and the Arkansas State University Classic at Jonesboro to the Kansas Relays at Lawrence, Kansas and Drake Relays, held at Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to the All-Arkansas Relays, three other meets were held at Alumni Field, including an AIC invitational practice meet and two triangular meets. Also held at Alumni Field was the Harding Invitational Decathalon competition. After the regular season meets wound to a close, concentration was placed completelyon the AIC Championships held on May 5-S in Arkadelphia. In that meet, the Bisons co llected 61 points and a fourth place standing. Ouachita Baptist University, the pre-meet favorite, won with 174 points. Outstanding performances included Perry Fraley's conference record-breaking leap in the pole vault. Fraley cleared the bar at 16'1 " in the preliminaries and placed second in the finals with a IS'S". The Bisons dominated the 5,000 meter run with John Sills placing first, Richard Teixeira second, Carte r Lambert at fourth, Joe O'Conor fifth, and John McAlister at sixth. In that event, the Bisons collected 19 points. Other Bisons who placed high included Tomas Sitton, who came in second in the SOO meter run, Alan Kwasiborski, who cleared 6'6" in the high jump for fourth place and Lambert again, who ran a personal best 3:54.33 for a second place in the 1500 meters. Absent from the meet was AllAmerican Mike Lynch, who established a school record in the pole vault with a 16'9" vau lt, at Alumni Field. Fraley, Sills, Kwasiborski and Lambert later competed in the NAIA Track and Field Championships, held at Abilene Chr istian University in Abilene , Texas. Award winners included Lambert most valuab le track man, and Lync h most valuable field man. A new award, the Bruce Gaither Award, was established in memory of Gaither, an outstanding Bison high jumper who was killed in an auto accident. This award went to Lynch. - Sluf Photo / track 1980 AIC·NAIA DISTRICT 17 TRACK AND FIELD RESULTS Ouachita Baptist Universi ty 174 University of Arkansas-Monticello 6S Arkansas Tech University 64 HARDING UNIVERSITY 61 Southern Arkansas University 52 Henderson State University 44 University of Central Arkansas 43 College of the Ozarks 13 Hendrix College 6 - (o"flev of p,,""ull' Off/a
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