The UNLV Women’s track & field team competed in its first home meet since 2021 at the Myron Partridge Stadium and Sheila Tarr Smith Field on April 5-6 for the UNLV Rebels Elite Invitational.
The meet featured 33 UNLV Rebels student-athletes including 23 of them participating in multiple events at the invitational. The Rebels competed against student-athletes from Northern Arizona, Southern Utah and Utah Tech.
UNLV finished the meet with the most points among the four schools that competed, totaling 176 points.
Roxene Simpson and Amaya Brown placed fourth place, which was the best finish of the first day of the event.
Simpson threw 6.08 meters in the discus despite the high wind, and Brown posted a 5.45m on the long jump to secure both of their top-five finishes.
The Rebels took control on the second day, winning five events to finish the meet with the highest point total.
Before the team competed on Saturday, the team celebrated senior day. The team honored Morgan Aittama, LaKayla Yazzie, Isabella Scrader, Stephanie Zamora, Delaysia Allen and Endya Scott.
The team of Kennedi Porter, Jaydea Carter, Chinyere Okoro and AnnaKay Maitland placed first clocking a 45.60 time on the 4x100m relay.
The 4×100 meter relay time by UNLV beat out Northern Arizona’s team of Kyairra Reigh, Brenna Rodriguez, Kenashalee Kerr and Madeline Wilson by less than a second.
Carter and Porter went on to win more events throughout the day with new personal best times.
Carter set a new personal best in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 13.66. Carter was the only participant that finished the 100 meter hurdles under 14 seconds with Savannah Nielson finishing second with a 14.07.
Porter needed to finish with a personal best to win the 100 meter dash. She finished clocking in .18 seconds lower than her previous personal best and won the event by just .03 to Okoro.
Shakeria Bowra, Maitland and Sophia Alexander followed Porter and Okoro in the 100 meter dash, tallying up 15 points for their top five finishes.
UNLV earned its largest share of points from the 100 meter dash, earning 33 points with Rebels finishing first through fifth at the event.
Mackenzie Okonta picked up the fourth win of the day for the Rebels finishing with the longest distance on the triple jump. She finished with 11.27 meters (36-11.75), which was over a meter farther than Mackenzie Branch from Utah Tech who finished in second place.
Emil Osula Liis won UNLV’s fifth event in the javelin with a personal record distance of 46.16 meters (151’5”). She won handedly in the event with a distance over two meters ahead of Jackalyn Hatch from Southern Utah, who finished second place with 43.99 meters (144’4”).
UNLV concluded the event in first place with 176 points. Northern Arizona finished in second with 142 points. Southern Utah trailed Northern Arizona by only three points with 139 points, and Utah Tech finished fourth in the meet with 99.5 points.
Up Next
The UNLV Women’s track & field team will compete in its next meet at Walnut, California, on April 17-20 for the Mt. SAC Relays.
