Stephen F. Austin
Southland Conference Outdoor Championships
SFA Adds Three More Southland Titles
5/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 11, 2014
CONWAY, Arkansas – Day 2 of the Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships opened and closed with big performances for the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks as the men’s team holds the lead heading into the final day. The women’s team also had some impressive showings to put the Ladyjacks behind Sam Houston State in second place.
Jamal Peden opened the day with a victory for the men’s team in the long jump. He added 10 more points to the team total with his leap of 7.70 meters (25-3.25) on his fifth attempt to jump up from third place. It marked SFA’s third event victory early in the meet.
Peden was joined on the scoreboard by teammate Trey Darty in fifth place to score four points. Darty had a mark of 7.24 meters (23-9.00) on his third attempt to qualify for the final out of the first flight and held his spot.
Another victory came for the men’s team in the decathlon when Cody Rhodes scored 6,878 points to claim the top spot. He was not through after his victory either.
Rhodes competed late into the night in the open javelin where he came into the meet ranked 13th in the Southland. He posted a new personal record throw of 57.43 meters (188-5) to finish in fifth and make his scoring total 14 points for the meet.
In the decathlon, Rhodes steadily climbed his way to the top of the decathlon standings throughout the day and found himself in the lead heading into the final event. He needed to finish at least three seconds faster than the second-place competitor the 1,500 meters and better than nine ahead of the athlete in third place.
Rhodes turned it on during the final lap and took the lead over the last 150 meters to close out the decathlon as the champion.
Two other Lumberjacks scored points for the team total in the decathlon as Jamal Davis had two PR’s on the day to finish in fifth with 6,512 points. Christian Bean placed eighth with 6,176 points.
Success continued to come to the Lumberjacks in the field events as Lucas Akins took sixth place for the men in the discs with his throw of 47.45 meters (155-8) and scored three more points. He backed that up with another shining performance under the lights in the javelin.
Akins threw a personal best 58.77 meters (192-10) to finish fourth in the javelin, bringing SFA’s total in that event to nine points. The Lumberjacks came into the meet with no athletes ranked high enough to score, but Akins and Rhodes both outshined their competition.
It was a sweep in the multi-events for SFA with Shambrail Woods winning the heptathlon for the Ladyjacks. Woods moved her way up the standings throughout the second day as the event closes with thereof her better disciplines.
Woods ran a personal best 2:18.69 in the 800 meters to close the heptathlon in style and jump over the leader and into first place. She scored a total of 4,977 points over the seven events in two days to score 10 points for the women’s scoring.
Field events kept adding more points on Saturday for the women as well.
Kirsten Knox jumped her way to a third-place finish at 5.79 meters (19-00.00) in the long jump. She was followed by Kayla Brewer in sixth to score three more points. Brewer jumped her way into the final out of the first flight to compete with the best in the Southland and score.
La’Tricia Griffin scored in her second event of the meet, finishing fifth in the discus. A day after posting a PR in the hammer throw, Griffin threw 44.95 meters (147-6) in the discus to add four more points for the Ladyjacks. Jessica Spelling found herself just outside the scoring marks in ninth place.
Throws was a strong area for SFA as Madison Johnston placed third in the javelin at 47.14 meters (154-8). She came into the meet ranked second in the league in a tightly contested event.
Similar to Friday night, the distance runners made their impact under the lights, this time in the steeplechase.
Shelby Pesek, Katrina Fite and Laurie Byrd finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively, for the women. Pesek ran a new personal best 10:58.53 as she separated herself from the pack early and held her position behind the leaders. Fite and Byrd ran together throughout much of the race and were able to hold off any late charges to remaining in the scoring.
On the men’s side, sophomore Cody Brown ran by a small pack over the final 200 meters to make a charge and finish second. Brown began increasing his pace with 600 meters to go and heading into the final water jump, he made a charge to pass two more runners and take second place down the final straightaway.
Brown scored eight points for the men, and Ervin Mooney advanced over the final lap to finish in sixth and add three more points.
SFA positioned itself well for Sunday’s running finals with a handful of Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks advancing through preliminary heats.
The men’s squad will have seven opportunities to score in running events on Sunday. The Ladyjacks will have 13 chances to score. Three more field events remain on Sunday as well to provide more scoring opportunities.
Sunday’s action starts at 10 a.m. with the men’s shot put and women’s high jump. Fans can follow the action online with live results provided by cfpitiming.com. Updates will also be available on Twitter by following the handle @SFA_XC. Fans also are encouraged to follow and use the official meet hashtag of #SLCOutdoorTF to interact with the meet.
sfajacks.com
