After an rough initial outing for the WSU track and field team in the first day of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, the Cougars bounced back to boast a strong showing led by junior Erin Allen in the women’s hurdles.  

In the final day of the heptathlon, freshman Alissa Brooks-Johnson started in 19th place and opened up with long jump, leaping 17-feet 4 ¼ inches.  She also threw the javelin a personal record distance of 113-feet 4 inches and wrapped up competition with an impressive time in the 800-meter dash, a personal record time of 2 minutes 19.37 seconds. Brook-Johnson finished 18th of the 24 women and, in the process, scored a lifetime-best in the heptathlon with a total 4,987 points.

It was Erin Allen, though, who stole the show for the WSU women. 

Allen ran a time of 1 minute and 0.64 seconds in the women’s final 400-meter hurdles and finished sixth. In the prelims, she also cracked the top 10, running the 400-meter hurdles in just 59.92 seconds, which was ninth best among the 62 women competing. 

Cougar sophomore Kristine Felix tied for fifth place in the women’s pole vault, clearing the bar at 13-feet 1 ½ inches.  Junior Shaquana Logan did not have the strongest outing in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 13.71 seconds for 17th place. Sophomore Dominique Keel finished the women’s 100-meter dash in 11.87 seconds to take 29th and freshman Danielle Darden raced to a time of 12.05 seconds to end her day in 42nd overall.   

The men also struggled in the 110-meter hurdles with senior Josiah Sims coming in 22nd with a time of 14.42 seconds and Garrett Gerling ran the same event in 14.61 seconds, good for 32nd.  

The Cougars will travel north to compete in the Sam Adams Classic this weekend in Spokane.