The Texas State Fab Five

A year ago this time, five track and field athletes from different levels of backgrounds were competing across the world.  

One was competing internationally in Germany.  

Two were competing in the Texas high school state championships, representing communities that do not send too many athletes to that stage. 

Another one was also competing in states in Texas, but he had no college offers and was considering playing another sport entirely at the collegiate level. 

And the final one had all but given up hope that she was going to be able to come to the United States.  

Flash forward to present day, and those five athletes have converged on to one place – San Marcos, Texas – and will wear the same TXST logo across their chests.  

Not only will they share the bond of competing for Texas State at the NCAA West Prelims in Sacramento this week, but they also share a similar quality: they are all freshmen. 

The five freshman Bobcats are near the most, if not the most, ever qualified for the NCAA outdoor track and field regionals in program history. They are one step away from competing among the best at the on NCAA Division I’s biggest stage.  

Meet Texas State track and field’s “Fab Five”: Melanie Duron, Aiden Hayes, Chris Preddie, Elisabet Runarsdottir, and Utitofon Sam. 

The “Fab Five” nickname was originally given to the five freshman men’s basketball players at Michigan in the early 1990s. They led the Wolverines to the national title game during the 1991-92 season. 

The “Texas State Fab Five” are also looking to crack the national championship level.  

The group has a few shared qualities, but the “Fab Five” all come from different places. 

Runarsdottir, originally from Ko’pavogur, Iceland, is the most established. She is a two-time national champion in her home country. She once finished fourth in the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021. Last March, she finished on the podium at the European Throwing Cup held in Portugal with a third-place and a mark of 64.20 meters. 

Two weeks ago, in the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships, she set the Iceland record with a hammer throw of 65.53 meters.  

“I feel ready to compete,” said Runarsdottir. “I PB’d (at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships), which was definitely not expected. I have been dealing with injuries for the past four years, the same back injury. It really messed up my offseason. I didn’t even lift. I barely threw, which is really not something a thrower wants to be doing. Me and coach (Coach Frazier) stuck with the program. We have been working really, really hard to make it work when I am in the condition that I don’t want to be in. I am really confident.” 

While Runarsdottir was achieving national and international success, Duron and Preddie were state champions in high school in the state of Texas. Duron, from the large border town of Laredo, was the first person from Laredo to win back-to-back state track and field championships in the last 75 years when she captured the 5A shot put in Austin in 2022. 

Now at Texas State, Duron quickly ascended into the school record books. She threw 17.03 meters/55’10.5” at the Charles Austin Classic in late March, which was a freshman school record and third-best ever by a Bobcat. That type of mark – over 17 meters/56 feet – is what it is going to take to reach the NCAA Championships. 

For Duron, though, she has placed her trust in Coach Frazier and the program. The two developed to take her from 48 feet in high school in the shot put to over 55 feet in college. That increase in distance is notable, but for someone from of Laredo, Duron recognizes that improvement speaks volumes to where she is from and the people she represents. 

“I come from somewhere that nobody expects to get out,” said Duron. “It’s a border town. They just think we’re just any other Hispanic people that are going to go to work and not go to college. That is the main reason I am doing what I am doing.” 

Duron is not only representing Laredo, but she is also doing it for Mexico. She will compete for Mexico in the U20 Games this summer and has aspirations to represent her dad’s home country in the Olympics one day. She truly represents the people of her hometown, many of whom are not able to have the same opportunity she has today. 

“People are choosing not to do sports in high school because they have to pay for rent,” said Duron. “I tell them, ‘You know what, yes, we’re in certain situations that we just can’t (play sports). But if you work hard for it, it will happen. Me doing this and me making it to regionals, it motivates them. Whenever people ask, ‘What’s your why?’ They are my why. For me, making it this far, I recognize it.” 

As big as Laredo is, Little River Academy is as small. Little River is where Preddie is from. He was born in Queens, New York but lived in Temple, Texas until sixth grade. He and his mom moved to Little River for a better educational fit. 

Fortunate to have a great vertical jump, Preddie envisioned playing basketball one day. However, his height did not catch up to his vertical, so he jumped into track and field. 

“In track, it is something not everyone can do, especially triple jump,” said Preddie on why he got into track and field. “It’s not something you can go out to the track and master in a day, a week or even a year. It takes reps, efforts, a lot of stuff. It’s not like running. With jumping, you need to master the running part and the jumping part and the technique part. That is what we made me really love it first.” 

Preddie has qualified for the NCAA West Prelims in the long jump and triple jump, two events he won last year at 3A state. He leans on his mom as an extra coach – she was not a track athlete but “my mom knows way more about track than I do,” according to Preddie – and he found motivation in others from Little River who went on to compete at the Division I level, including Jenna Brazeal who is a star distance runner at Tarleton State. 

To reach the first stage of the NCAA postseason for Preddie is noteworthy considering he was lightly recruited in high school. 

“Early in my recruitment, there weren’t a lot of people reaching out to me,” said Preddie. “When I came (to Texas State) on a visit, Coach K (Kendall Gustafson) made it feel like home. I felt like a member, not a number. A lot of these big schools, they’re just numbers. Here, it’s actually a family.” 

Preddie was not the only Bobcat freshman who once had basketball aspirations. Hayes had a couple college offers to play basketball. They were his only initial scholarship offers, though. He did not receive the attention of college track and field coaches until he finished runner-up at the Texas 6A high jump state championship in 2022. The Plano, Texas product then picked up five offers to compete in the high jump in college. But he knew where he wanted to go. 

“I came on a visit to Texas State in June, and it felt like home,” said Hayes. “I kind of knew it was the right place, especially after I met Coach K.” 

He used his first year at Texas State to be a “student of the game” in high jump for the first time in his life, more or less. Since he is no longer chasing basketball, he finds high jump to be more interesting and constantly watches videos on the sport and how to be better. He’s meticulously watching how to run the curve, patience over the bar, and all the technicalities.  

Hayes has improved his consistency and his form this year. He went from jumping 6’8” in high school to just under 6’11” this year. Hayes, who has trained with Charles Austin, Texas State’s greatest athlete, the Olympic men’s high jump record holder, cleared 2.10 meters/6’10.75” in late April, making him the first Bobcat to reach that mark in seven years and tied for sixth-best ever in school history. He has eyes on working towards Austin’s school-best mark one day, which stands at 7’8.5”. 

“I was very excited (to make it to the NCAA West Prelims), but I know I have more work to do,” said Hayes. “I want to be top-12 (nationally), not just top-48 (in the region). I’m not trying to be complacent with where I am. I’m trying to push myself every day.” 

National champions, state champions, and then Sam. 

Sam was a part of Texas State Director of Track and Field/Cross Country John Frazier’s original signing class in November 2021, alongside Alyssa Wilson and her sister, Bryanna. Wilson went on to tear up the Texas State record books last year and accumulate multiple All-America honors. Sam, though, was still in Nigeria after her visa application was denied on January 11, 2022. Her performance over the spring suffered as she struggled with the reality that the opportunity to come to the United States and attend Texas State may not happen. 

Last summer, though, Sam gave it one more shot. 

“I’m not going to lie: I gave up,” said Sam. “Because when I went to the embassy (in August), I was just saying, ‘Anything that happens, I’ll take it. Maybe it’s not my time to come to America.’ What happened in January, that woman – the consulate – asked me nine good questions, and I gave correct answers to each one, but to only have her deny me. I went to meet her again on August 26 (2022), I was just asked one simple question, and she gave me the white paper.” 

Two years ago, Sam won multiple events in her home country in the discus. Last year, she tried to push through the mental struggle. This year, she is on the edge of the Texas State top-10 in the women’s discus and finished runner-up in the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships two weeks ago with a mark of 52.44 meters/172’-0”. That throw in conference in Myrtle Beach pushed her into the qualifiers for the NCAA West Prelims. 

“Going into regionals, I am mentally, physically, spiritually prepared. I have been working way too hard for it,” said Sam. “One thing about my performance this season is I was struggling on trying to know what to do. How to listen to the way my coach instructs me. I’ve learned to pay attention to your coach and let your mind focus on your coach. That’s the main focus. Once your mind is fixed on the coach, it goes very easy.” 

The significance of the moment of Sam making the NCAA West Prelims is not something she takes lightly either. 

“Seeing from where I come from, it is an achievement,” said Sam. “A lot of Division I schools have Nigerians that are throwers. But for some of them, it stops at making it to conference. But seeing me advance to regionals is a big achievement. Secondly, looking way back at last year and comparing it to this year, I am grateful.” 

The “Texas State Fab Five” have full intentions to break through this weekend and into the NCAA Championships. But to make it this far as a first-year student in college is an achievement in itself.  

The summer will feature the group competing across the world once again, whether it is the African Games for Sam, the European U23 Championships for Runarsdottir, or the U20 national championships for Preddie. They still have more to achieve in their freshman year. 

But the future for each of the “Texas State Fab Five,” and Texas State track and field program, is already starting to look bright.