MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Sun Belt's best track and field athletes began conference competition Friday at the newly dedicated Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium on the Middle Tennessee campus.

Middle Tennessee's William Songock placed first overall in the men's 10,000 meters setting a Middle Tennessee and stadium record of 30:43.11. Songock broke alum Robert Willis' 1983 school record of 30:51.20 and Eastern Kentucky's James Mutuse's Dean A. Hayes Track and Soccer Stadium standard of 30:53.11 from 2000. Patrick Cheptoek of Western Kentucky finished second in 30:49.72 and Ondrej Pusker of UALR came in third in 31:14.15. Songock earned the Blue Raiders 10 points placing them fourth in the team competition behind Arkansas State, UALR and Western Kentucky after day one.

Songock's win came as he took the lead for the first time on the final lap. He kept pace with Cheptoek and Pusker throughout the opening 25 laps, but as he and Cheptoek were stride-for-stride entering the final lap, the Kenyan native turned on the afterburners around the first turn and never looked back much to the delight of MT alums and fans in attendance.

Blue Raider junior Brittany Cox was the ninth and final athlete to reach the women's discus finals. However, Cox rebounded well and ended up third overall in the event on her final throw of 158-1 (48.19m) earning the Antioch, Tenn., native her third NCAA Regional qualifying mark in the event this season and six team points. Troy's Tiphanie Baker's mark of 179-0 (54.56m) bettered Louisiana-Monroe's Destiny Montemayor who placed second. Cox's six points places Middle Tennessee in fifth place in team scoring trailing Louisiana-Monroe, North Texas, Troy and Arkansas State.

The men's decathlon kicked off the weekend, with Louisiana-Monroe's Isaac Combs and Jordan Wehr of North Texas tied for first place in the 100 meter dash in times of 11.17 giving both athletes 823 points after the first event. Combs ended day one's five events in first place with 3812 points, just ahead North Texas' Andrew Turner who finished with 3699 and Leander McKenzie of Troy with 3516 points.

In the women's pentathlon, Arkansas State's Amy Bowman finished with 3124 points through four events just 11 ahead of Florida International's Laureni Louissaint. With eight athletes within 250 points of first place, tomorrow's competition should be very tight over the final three events.

In the men's discus, UALR's Kirby Atkins took the gold earning an NCAA Regional mark with a toss of 172-5 (52.55m) edging Jesse Williams of Arkansas State's throw of 171-10 (52.73m). Joey Torres of South Alabama finished third with a mark of 170-5 (51.95m). Middle Tennessee's Derrick Crutcher placed 17th overall throwing for a personal best of 116-2 (35.41m) in the preliminary round.

The afternoon session ended with the women's pole vault. Stephanie Foreman of Arkansas State took first overall in the event with a vault of 13-1.5 (4.0m). Foreman was the first of three ASU athletes to finish in the top five overall in the event with teammates Catheryn Frappier finishing second with a mark of 12-7.5 (3.85m) and Erica Naeger placing fifth with a height of 12-1.5 (3.7m).

WKU's Janet Jesang capped the women's events of the day with a time of 36:41.01 to win the 10,000 meters. She finished 13 seconds ahead of FIU's Paola Reategui as the pair separated themselves from the pack.

The conclusion of the decathlon and heptathlon will kick off Saturday's events. Finals of five field events will take place in the afternoon before running preliminaries will occur in early evening. The only running finals slated for Saturday are for the 3,000-meter steeplechase, scheduled to begin at approximately 9 p.m.

Men's Team Standings
1. Western Kentucky, 22
2. UALR, 18
3. Arkansas State, 14
4. Middle Tennessee, 10
5. South Alabama, 6
6. FIU, 5
7. Louisiana-Lafayette, 2
8. Troy, 1

Women's Team Standings
1. Western Kentucky, 26
2. Arkansas State, 22
3. FIU, 16
4. Troy, 15
5. North Texas, 11
6. South Alabama, 9
6. Louisiana-Monroe, 9
8. Middle Tennessee, 7
9. Florida Atlantic, 2

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