GULF SHORES, Ala. – The Indiana Tech men's track and field team opened up action at the 2019 NAIA National Outdoor Championship Thursday afternoon at Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium with five points to finish the day in a tie for ninth place.
 
Cayce Griffin gave the Warriors their first points of the weekend in the final event of the day as he took fourth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 31:26.48, the highest-ever finish by an individual in the 10k.
 
The 4x100m relay of Matt Lockridge, Qawtavius Johnson, Coby Bailey and Brandon Smiley won their heat and finished second overall in the preliminaries with a time of 40.08, finishing just six-one-thousandths of a second behind Tennessee Wesleyan University's team. Smiley took second in the 200m prelims with a time of 20.99 to win his heat.
 
Tech continues action at the NAIA National Championships on Friday as day two gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT from Mickey Miller Blackwell Stadium.