Mapaya Finishes Third at NCAA Indoors

Saturday, March 9

Birmingham, Ala.

All Day

TCU

NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship

Mapaya Finishes Third at NCAA Indoors

3/9/2019 8:50:00 PM | Men's Indoor Track, Women's Indoor Track

Saturday Results

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – TCU track and field wrapped up the 2019 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday. Following Destiny Longmire's First-Team All-America honors from day one, Chengetayi Mapaya, Derrick Mokaleng, and the 4x400 relay added three more First-Team honors on day two.

BRONZE MEDAL
In only his second trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships, Mapaya followed up last year's bronze medal performance with another one on Saturday. The sophomore from Zimbabwe jumped 16.61m for a third-place finish. In only two indoor seasons at TCU, Mapaya has two NCAA bronze medals, a Big 12 title, a Big 12 bronze medal, and the school triple jump record.

BACK-TO-BACK
Mokaleng also went back-to-back for TCU. A 400m First-Team All-American at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships, Mokaleng added another First-Team honor with an eighth-place time of 46.22.

TCU's men's 4x400 relay wrapped up the meet with the program's second-consecutive First-Team All-America honors. Finishing seventh at last year's national indoor meet, the tandem of Darrion Flowers, Tinotenda Matiyenga, Emmanuel Ogwo and Mokaleng finished seventh again on Saturday. An added bonus to the meet, the 4x400 relay group defeated Baylor and was the top team from the Big 12.

TEAM STANDINGS
In the final team standings, TCU's men finished tied for 25^th overall and fourth-best out of the eight teams representing the Big 12. The Horned Frogs finished above Baylor, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and Kansas State.

COACH'S THOUGHTS
"Du did a great job getting third-place in the triple jump and was consistent all indoor season," head track and field coach Darryl Anderson said. "Everybody we brought earned First-Team All-American and that's a good reward. I'm just taken aback by this group. This group was just really resilient all season. It ain't sour grapes, but we weren't able to get as ready as we needed to be to come here because of the weather. It is what it is and you can't control that. As a coach, it irritates you when you know you're much better than how you performed. But now we move outside and at some point, the Texas weather is going to come. The sun is going to shine, it's going to be 80, 90, or even 100 degrees, and we'll all be happy."

UP NEXT
Saturday marked the end of the 2019 indoor track season for the Horned Frogs. TCU will now move into the outdoor season next weekend with the team's lone home meet. The TCU Invitational is scheduled for Saturday, March 16.