Montgomery leads strong track team in Birmingham

The Troy track and field team made its presence known in the Jaguar Invitational over the weekend, earning 10 top-eight finishes in the Birmingham event.

The Trojans got a taste of what’s to come later this season at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships as they competed against five conference opponents in the Birmingham Crossplex Arena.

Most notable in the event was sophomore Hakim Montgomery’s meet-record time of 6.69, which was good enough to get him into first place in the finals for the 60-meter dash. With the win, Montgomery has won all six 60-meter dashes that he’s participated in this season.

Also winning his event was sophomore Michael Alvernaz, who used a school-record toss of 19.09 meters in the weight throw to earn first place in the event. It was his second straight win in the weight throw after doing so in the KMS Invite hosted by Troy in Birmingham on Jan. 29.

In the women’s weight throw, Allison Taylor also had a personal best, throwing 17.31 meters.

“We had some very good performances today,” said Troy Head Coach Marc Davis. “Hakim continued his undefeated season, and Mike and Ali continued their successes in the weight throw.”

For the men’s 800-meter run, sophomore Tyson Robinson just barely missed on a first-place finish of his own, finishing 0.14 seconds behind Texas State’s Tyrone Jackson.

In the women’s running events, Sara Zylstra finished in the top 10 of the 5,000-meter run, finishing with a time of 18:51.24 and a spot in fourth place. Over at the 200-meter dash, Niata Alexander finished sixth out of 44 runners with a time of 24.59 seconds.

“While we had some good performances, we still have some work to do,” Davis said. “We have a handful of league scorers on the team. The rest are very young newcomers that are still learning the college level of competition. The final two weeks of sharpening will be critical to our success.”

The Trojans’ final meet before the indoor conference championships is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, as Samford University is hosting Samford Open. After that, Troy will have little over a week to prepare for conference competition.