Jeshua Anderson defended his hurdles title in Austin, Texas, this weekend at the 82nd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.

Anderson won the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 49.48 seconds on Saturday, the third and final day of the competition. The time was improved from 49.68 seconds last year and also improved his NCAA Regional Qualifying time. Senior Barry Leavitt took fourth in the same race with a season-best time of 51.39 seconds.

“I feel really good. I’m still trying to get in shape because I feel as though I’m still in my football shape. I have to keep on training and push myself to secure more victories in the future,” Anderson said in a WSU news release. “I had a few things I wanted to work on, and I feel like I accomplished those goals today.” Sophomore Marissa Tschida placed fifth in the javelin after throwing 49.32 meters on her first attempt. Lynnea Braun finished eighth with a 43.56-meter throw. Both were NCAA RQ marks, though neither was a season-best.

Robert Williams had a little bit of help from the wind when he ran the second-fastest time in the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries with a time of 13.81 seconds. During the finals however, he fell after the second hurdle and did not finish. The Cougar men’s 4x400 meter relay team finished with an NCAA RQ time of 3:09.28, though Baylor won the event with a time of 3:02.69.

The women’s 1600-meter sprint relay team consisting of Princess Joy Griffey, Morgan Clem, Lorraine King and Anna Layman finished in 3:56.68, narrowly finishing behind first-place Louisiana State University.

On Saturday, a portion of the track and field team competed in the Sam Adams Classic Meet at Whitworth University in Spokane. Candace Missouri came out the big winner, grabbing three event victories Saturday. She won the long jump (18-3 3/4), triple jump (35-10 1/2) and the 100-meter dash (12.39). Jennifer Hamilton won two events, the javelin and shot put. Hamilton was a part of a 1-2-3 finish in the shot put for the Cougars, with Ashley Kenney in second and Anna Albrecht taking third.

Junior Trent Arrivey continued his torrid pace this season, winning yet another high jump competition, which also broke the meet record by 1 1/2 inches. Another WSU male competitor that fared well was sophomore André Jennings, who won both the 100 and 200-meter dash.

Moreno Zapata won the triple jump with 14.74 meters, and Beau Carrillo tied the meet record in the pole vault by clearing 4.90 meters.

Overall, WSU athletes won 18 events at the Sam Adams Classic in Spokane. Head coach Rick Sloan said he was pleased with the team’s progress.

“We had some pretty nice marks here and under the circumstances, some pretty nice work,” Sloan said in a WSU news release.

The WSU track and field teams will compete at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational in Los Angeles starting Thursday.