Men's Track Freshmen Debut at first Outdoor Race in Tyler on Saturday

TYLER, Texas - The University of Dallas men's track and field began the 2021 season at the Ice Breaker Classic in Tyler, Texas on Saturday.  The freshmen heavy team saw five Crusaders compete in their first collegiate level track meet.

UD's lone returning member of the team from 2020, Sam McLard (Flower Mound, Texas) ran in the 100m dash on Saturday with a wind-assisted (4.1) time of 14.43 seconds. While wind-assisted times do not count toward official records, McLard 100m time was an improvement from his previous best time of 15.03 wind-assisted that he ran in 2020 at the Hardin-Simmons Invitational.

Nicholas Walz (Irving, Texas) was among the trio of Crusaders who competed in the 5000m run and ran 17:30.04 in the event.

Jonathan Cantu (Dallas, Texas) and Ryan Connor (Overland Park, Kan.) were the other two Crusaders who ran the 5000m.  Cantu finished with a time of 17:46.60 and Connor had a time of 18:28.17.

Luke LaCour (Metairie, La.) ran in both the 400m dash and the 800m on Saturday, recording times of 56.58 and 2:11.84.

James LaTour (Lubbock, Texas) ran a 4:47.48 for the 1500m run.

Walz, Cantu, Connor, LaCour and LaTour all competed for UD in the 2020-21 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) cross country championship back in February.