Payne, Brown-Stewart Named SLC Athletes of the Week
1/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Stephen F. Austin’s Demi Payne and Cass Brown-Stewart have been named Southland Conference Athletes of the Week, the league office announced Wednesday afternoon. Payne picks up her first SLC women’s field athlete of the week award while Brown-Stewart earns his second SLC men’s track athlete of the week after two indoor meets this year.
Payne, who was also named the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week on Tuesday morning, broke the NCAA women’s pole vault record with a jump of 4.63 meters (15-2.25) on Saturday at the Texas A&M Team Invitational. Her impressive achievement came just one day after Arkansas’ Sandi Morris set a national mark of 4.61 meters. Payne, who blew by the field in College Station, nearly added to her NCAA record-setting flight, narrowly missing at 4.65 meters (15-3) on her three allotted attempts.
A native of New Braunfels, Texas, Payne is the first college woman to ever clear 4.63 meters (15-2.25) under any conditions – indoor or outdoor.
In just her second meet as a Ladyjack after transferring from Kansas, Payne has experienced a great amount of success early in the 2015 indoor season. On Jan. 10 at the Akron Pole Vault Convention, Payne broke the program’s indoor pole vault record, surpassing 4.30 meters (14-1.25). The height shattered the previous women’s mark of 4.09m (13-5.25) – a record that stood for nearly 14 years.
Payne’s father Bill competed at the 1995 world championships in the vault and was also an All-American at Baylor. With Demi’s NCAA record set on Saturday, the father-daughter combination of Bill and Demi now holds a world record in the pole vault. Combined the pair has cleared 10.49 meters (34-5), passing the Russian duo of Alex and Liz Parnov for the world’s top spot (research credit: Troy James).
Brown-Stewart’s second weekly honor of the year comes on the heels of another big week for the senior. Up against some of the top sprinters in the nation, he took first place in the 400-meter dash on Saturday afternoon using a time of 47.11 seconds. It was clocked as the fourth fastest time in the NCAA this year and he also currently holds the second fastest time in the country in the event (47.00) set on Jan. 9 at the Arkansas Invitational.
Brown-Stewart, who hails from Fort Worth, Texas, also anchored SFA’s 4x400 meter relay on Saturday evening. Along with Shawn Goff, Joshua Taylor and My’Lik Kerley, the group ran to a third place finish and the sixth best time in the NCAA this season (3:10.53) – just 54 hundredths of a second from breaking the school record.
Payne and the SFA pole vault crew will next head to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Lobo Collegiate Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 24 while Brown-Stewart and the full track and field squad will be back in action on Jan. 30-31 for the Howie Ryan Inviational in Houston.
-SFA-
