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HOUSTON – Chalk up a nice win for former Little Cypress-Mauriceville long distance track standout Eli Peveto as he zipped to his first-ever first-place finish for the Lamar Cardinals in the 3,000 meters at the Howie Ryan Invitational at the University of Houston.

Peveto chewed up the track, clocking in with a time of 8 minutes, 24.40 seconds. He finished just ahead of Houston Baptist’s Benjamin Drew (8:25.41) and UT-Arlington’s Alfredo Coronoa (8:26.65).

Peveto has shined at Lamar after a great run at LC-M.

Peveto qualified for State and State Cross Country all four years as a Bear and was The Orange Leader’s Track Athlete of the Year from 2017-19.

He has had a superb run for Lamar as his times have continued to improve drastically over the last two seasons and he played a big role in helping the Cardinals claim the 2019 Southland Conference Men’s Cross Country Championship.

The Cardinals posted other success at the indoor meet.

In the men’s long jump, Kenson Tate earned first place overall with 7.23m. The triple jump would see two men reach the top five. Patrick Wolf reached 14.02m for second place. Sean Coley recorded 13.83m for fourth place. Meanwhile, Arajanee Jackson finished fourth on the women’s side with 11.85m.

On the track surface, the women had two top five finishers in the 800m. Yasmin Austridge posted a time of 2:10.78 for second place while Nia Clatworthy (2:16.46) finished four spots and almost six seconds behind. Brianna Howard posted a fifth place finish at the 200m with 25.50 seconds to her time.

The men’s mile had an exciting finish between teammates Declan Neary and George Wheeler. This time, it was Neary (4:11.14), who took first place as he bested Wheeler (4:11.47) by .33 seconds. Neary then followed up with an 800m time of 1:54.73 that was good for fifth place.