SFA Finishes in Top Four at SLC Championships
5/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 13, 2002
ARLINGTON, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin men's and women's track and field teams concluded a successful 2002 Southland Conference Outdoor Championship meet with the Lumberjacks recording a third-place finish (105 points) and the Ladyjacks finishing fourth (93.50 points).
The Lumberjacks were led by sophomore Nathan Flores (Kingwood, Texas) who set the tone for SFA by recording three individual titles, leading all scorers at the meet. Flores picked up his first honor with his time of 31:29.54 in the 10,000 meters. He followed that up 24 hours later with his 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:07.23) title. Flores recorded his third title in as many days when he crossed the finish line with a time of 14:44.93 in the 5,000 meters. Senior Adam Keul (Tyler, Texas) continued his dominance in the pole vault when he cleared a height of 17-9.25 to earn individual league honors. Classmate J.W. Potter (Big Sandy, Texas) gave the Lumberjacks their fifth individual title, when he finished first in the 800 meters with his time of 1:50.53 time.
Sophomore Justin Connell (Troup, Texas) earned All-Southland Conference honors with his second-place finish in the decathlon. Connell finished the meet with 6,852 points. Classmate Jonathan Roberson (Mart, Texas) just missed all-conference honors in the decathlon with his fourth-place finish. Roberson scored 6,656 points. Junior Paul Todd (Marshall, Texas) earned all-conference honors in the high jump when he cleared 6-10.75 to finish in a two-way tie for third place.
On the women's side, senior Misty Ballard-Swan (Carlsbad, N.M.) completed the SFA sweep of the pole vault with her mark of 12-5.50. Senior Destine Rawls (Houston, Texas) earned All-SLC honors in two events finishing second in the shot put (49-3.00) and returning to the field 24 hours later to win the SLC individual title in the discus throw (157-3.00). Junior Jessica Claiborne (Spring, Texas) earned all-conference honors and set SFA records with her jump of 41-5.00 in the triple jump. Prior to Claiborne's record setting jump, freshman Shametra Boykins (Karnack, Texas) broke the triple jump record with her mark of 40-8.75, just missing All-SLC honors with a fourth-place finish. Claiborne returned to the field to set a school-record, and just missed earning all-conference honors with her jump of 19-9.75 in the long jump. Her mark was good enough for a fifth-place overall finish. Freshman Jocelyn Stevens (Schertz, Texas) and junior Bonnie McHan (Abilene, Texas) also earned All-SLC honors with their second and third-place finishes, respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles. Stevens recorded a time of 1:01.48. McHan crossed the finish line with a time of 1:01.79. Freshman Jessica Partin (Priddy, Texas) scored for SFA with her seventh-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, setting an SFA record in the process (12:06.66).
"Both squads recorded good team finishes," said SFA head coach Phil Olson. "The 105 points is the most scored by our men's squad in the past three seasons. We didn't have a lot of depth but the men put up some good points. It was just a good overall effort by both teams. If we had a down event, we came right back with a solid performance in another event. We simply ran out of scoring opportunities in the end."
The NCAA Outdoor Championships will be Wednesday May 29 through Sunday June 2.
-SFA-
