Stephen F. Austin
Southland Conference Outdoor Championships
SFA Overcomes Adversity to take 2nd
5/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 11, 2014
CONWAY, Arkansas – It was an uphill climb all week for the Stephen F. Austin track and field teams at the Southland Conference Championship, and the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks both nearly overcame the challenge.
Due to an entry mistake, none of SFA’s relay teams were allowed to compete at the championship meet. Without running the 4x100 or 4x400 meter relays on either side, the men’s and women’s teams finished second in the team standings.
SFA’s men led throughout most of the meet for three days, not being overtaken by Southeastern Louisiana until two events remained. The Lumberjacks scored nine points in the 5,000 meters after falling behind to take a seven-point lead into the final event of the meet – the 4x400 relay.
With the seven-point lead, SFA would win the title if SELU finished third or worst. The Lions ran a strong anchor leg and move into second place in the final turn and secured the team title by the score of157-156.
“Every championship meet is going to have challenges and obstacles to overcome. This year’s Southland Conference Championship certainly was for our program,” Head Coach Phil Olson said.
“Our athletes had a new and different set of challenges facing them. However, the adversity the team faced this weekend only proved to shed light on the enormous amount of commitment, character and unity owned by our student-athletes.
“They showed how well they can step up when the time comes and turn an individual’s sport into a true team sport. We may not be coming home with another first place trophy, but I am proud to be the coach of a group of individuals so dedicated to each other.”
The Ladyjacks had a tougher hill to climb with Sam Houston State holding a large lead heading into the final day of competition. SFA was able to take advantage of its strength in a number of events to score points and finish in second easily with 132 points. SHSU’s women scored 176 for the win, and Northwestern State finished third with 75 points.
SFA added three more event titles on Sunday with Cass Brown-Stewart and Josh Taylor winning their running events easily. La’Tricia Griffin made it back-to-back titles for her in the shot put.
Brown-Stewart crossed the line in 46.30 seconds in the 400 meters to make it back-to-back for him as well.
Taylor ran 50.77 seconds to leave the field behind in the 400 meter hurdles and break the school record.
Griffin’s mark of 15.14 meters (49-08.25) bettered the field by nearly half a meter.
The men’s team again received big production from its distance runners. After winning the 10,000 meters on Friday night, Nicholas Guerra took fourth in the 5,000 meters Sunday. He was closely finished by teammate and freshman Jeffrey Weisheit in fifth place to score nine points in the event. Weisheit also finished fifth in the 10k.
Quinlin McGregor took fourth in the 1,500 meters to open the running events for the men to start the scoring on the track.
SFA opened the day strong in the men’s shot put with Derek Calvert finishing in third place, moving up one spot from his ranking heading into the meat. Derek Orlando finished seventh, also finishing better than his ranking to make up some ground on SELU in the event the Lions dominated but did not score as much as predicted.
Another event that helped the men was the high jump as Bryce Willard finished fourth with his highest jump of the season at 2.00 meters. Stephen Kinney was right behind him in fifth place.
The women also went 4-5 in the high jump. Melai Carter jumped 1.68 meters. Heather McPherson tied for fifth, and Ashley Gadson came in eighth, as the women added 9.5 points to their total in the event.
Jamal Peden and Kirsetn Knox backed up their impressive showings in the long jump on Saturday with scoring marks in the triple jump as well. Both finished fourth to score five points for the men and women.
In addition to the men’s dominance in the sprints with two victories, the women had four top three finishes.
Stephanie White provided two of those performances with third-place finishes in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles.
Jessica Hatchett also took third in the 400 meters with her time of 54.62 seconds.
Brarysheyia Simpson finished second in the 100 meters in a photo finish and a time of 11.65, just .03 off the school record. Simpson would later pull up lame during the final of the 200 meters, and event she was one of the top rated in.
SFA will now turn its attention to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. Athletes ranked in the top 48 in the West region will qualify for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds. The top 12 finishers in the West will advance to the NCAA Championships.
sfajacks.com
