Stephen F. Austin
Southland Conference Outdoor Championships
Lumberjacks Score in Bunches to Open SLC Meet
5/9/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 9, 2014
Complete Results Day 1 
| Post-Meet Notes
CONWAY, Arkansas - Stephen F. Austin opened up the 2014 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships with some dominating performances for the Lumberjacks to jump atop the standings through Day 1 with 42 points.
Colton Ross continued his dominance this season with a victory in the men's pole vault. It was another record for the Lumberjacks as he set a Southland Conference Championship meet record at 5.56 meters (18-02.75), surpassing former Oral Roberts Golden Eagle Jack Whitt.
His win gave the Lumberjacks an early 10 points, but Ross was not alone in the event.
Cameron Meyer finished right behind him in second place at 5.12 meters (16-9.50) to earn eight points, and freshman Daven Murphree was fourth at 5.02 meters (16-6.50) to bring the team's total to 23 points in the first event.
Points came in bunches again for the Lumberjacks in the men's 10,000 meters with Nicholas Guerra leading throughout much of the race and pulling away from the rest of the field. Guerra crossed the line in 31:06.70 to make it SFA's second victory in three events to open the meet and score another 10 points.
But it was a pair of freshman that provided more drama in the 10,000. Colby Mehmen and with the lead pack throughout much of the race and fell back to finish in fourth and add five points. Jeffrey Weisheit was in a secondary pack hovering around eighth through until the final mile when he inched his way up to fifth.
The Lumberjacks would score 19 points in the men's 10K to score some unanticipated and valuable points toward the team scoring.
On the women's side, another freshman ran her way onto the podium.
Courtney High ran smoothly the whole way of the 10K, finishing with a time of 37:42.47. Her time was good enough to finish third and score six points for the women's team. She was able to keep pace with the runner-up for much of the race until Sam Houston State's Olivia Olguin tried to catch Brooke Cassar of Central Arkansas over the final mile.
It was a busy day for SFA's mutli-event athletes with the men and women putting some impressive performances up.
Shambrail Woods put herself in contention for the title, finding herself in third place through four of the seven events in the heptathlon. Woods scored 2,911 points and closed the day with a personal record in the 200 meters to take some momentum into Day 2.
Jamal Davis is fourth in the decathlon through five events with 3,585 points, and Cody Rhodes also had a strong day with 3,5202 points.
Davis had a PR in the shot put, while Rhodes opened with a wind-aided PR in the 100 meters and was just one centimeter shy of a PR in the high jump. Christian Bean stands in 10th after the first day, and freshman Hunter Key is in 17th after having his score in the 400 meters scraped from a disqualification.
Five more points went to the Ladyjacks in the hammer throw. La'Tricia Griffin had the best performance of her career with a new PR of 55.24 meters (181-03). The mark was only 13 inches short of third place. Jessica Spelling also had a good showing in the hammer throw with her mark of 45.48 meters (149-02) to finish in 10th.
The Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks will take to the track and the field again on Saturday for the second day of three action-packed days to determine a conference champion.
Saturday's schedule will begin with the heptathlon and decathlon as the multis close out their events. Three more field event crowns will be awarded with SFA holding the No. 1 ranking in two of them. Preliminary heats for running events also start at 5 p.m.
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.
SFA will be looking to repeat its sweep of a year ago when the men and women both won the team championship.
sfajacks.com
