AMES, Iowa (2/10/07) ? Jason Brooks broke his own record in the 600-yard run and several other Arkansas State track and field athletes posted season and personal bests to end competition in the three-day Iowa State Classic here Saturday.
“I am very satisfied with our performances,” said ASU Head Coach Jay Flanagan, whose men's and women's squads competed against over 75 schools in the meet. “We had a lot of personal bests against some really strong competition. I thought Jason would have a chance to break the 600 mark and he did a nice job.
“We came here and did what we wanted to do and that was work hard and show improvement. Now, we go back and continue concentrating on the Sun Belt meet.”
Brooks, a senior from Memphis, finished third in the 600-yard run with a time of 1:11.59, eclipsing his old mark school record of 1:11.98 set in 2005. It was a career-best for Brooks who also barely missed the NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 400 with 47.75. That time is also a season-best.
Flanagan was particularly pleased with the performance of his three heptathletes?Matt Vining, B.J. Parish, and Shawn Aronson. Aronson competed in his first-ever multi-event to finish sixth with 5,011. Vining, the school record holder, was third with 5,193 points, and Parish followed at fourth with 5,039. ASU assistant coach Joe Cebulski won the event with 5,575 points.
“It's very impressive that all three scored over 5,000 points,” said Flanagan. “Shawn had an outstanding performance in his first heptathlon. It's a demanding event and Shawn jumped 24 feet and a quarter inch to win the long jump and won the high jump with 6-8 1/4. That's two pretty good performances on their own.”
James Jenkins, a qualifier in the triple jump already, competed in the high jump finishing second with a leap of 6-11 3/4, a personal best. Teammate Reilly McKay was fifth with another season high 6-9 3/4. Jenkins came back later to jump 47-0 3/4 in the triple jump.
Hurdler Kazmere finished both the preliminary and semifinal 60-meter hurdles races with 8.07 before finishing sixth in the finals with 7.98. Hill also competed in the 200 with a time of 22.36.
Adam Sarafian, who qualified a week ago, came in fourth in the pole vault with 17-1. Michael Davis and Jeremy Willis both vaulted 15-7 1/4.
Other personal bests include a distance medley time of 10:35.66, Brad Reach's time of 15:14.56 in the 5,000-meter run, a 4:23.40 and 4:33.10 in the mile run for Nathan Mattox and Michael Miller, and 800 times of 1:56.71 for Terell Pigram and 1:58.64 for Tarius Moss. Derell Pigram had 1:14.48 in the 600-yard run.
In other results, Derek Bowman competed in the weight throw with 39-7 3/4 along with Bryant Hankton's 37-7 3/4. In the 60-meter dash, Roy Harris toped the ASU competitor list with 7.10, Darren Toney finished in 7.15, Corey Jackson had 7.29 and Jenkins ran 7.33.
For the women, ASU's top finishers were Amy Fleddermann who captured fourth in the women's pentathlon with 3,663 points and pole vaulter Elise Birnbaum with 11-7 3/4, a personal best.
Other season highs for the Lady Indians are a time of 25.44 in the 200-meter dash by Brittany Bell which ranks sixth on ASU's all-time list, a time of 9.23 in the 60-meter hurdles and 1:00.84 in the 400 by Caitlin Winey, and Dominique Dawson's 7.79 in the 60-dash.
In the 3,000-meter run, Maggie Kimani shaved over 15 seconds off her previous best time to finish with 10:21.29, the second fastest time in school history. Freshman Staci Papageorge improved her 3,000-time to 11:08.34, some six seconds better and the ninth-fastest time.
The Lady Indians competed in the distance medley relay for the first time this season and came in with 12:56.45. In the long jump, Dawson jumped 18-3 3/4 and Lesly Hale had 17-4 3/4. Hale also jumped 5-1 1/4 in the high jump and posted 9.34 in the hurdles.
Kristiina Alatalo competed in the triple jump and jumped 37-8 3/4, Brittney Leftwich threw the shot put 32-5 3/4 and finished the 400 in 1:04.34. Mary Edwards completed the 800-meter run in 2:24.62 with Shana Yoder close behind in 2:26.10.
Arkansas State takes off next week and begins preparation for the Sun Belt Conference Championship Feb. 24-25 at ASU's Convocation Center.
END
