MEMPHIS, Tenn. (4/30/16) – Arkansas State track and field posted 37 top-10 finishes at the Memphis Tiger Invitational Saturday in its final meet ahead of the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships.
The meet got off to a slow start due to storms passing through the area, but A-State weathered the storm for a productive day. The Red Wolves were matched against host Memphis, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Little Rock, Tennessee State, Middle Tennessee, Ole Miss, Central Arkansas, SEMO, Austin Peay, Christian Brothers, Hendrix and Missouri.
“We've been getting a little better each week and today we followed that trend,” said head coach Jim Patchell. We had some bad weather this morning, but we handled that well. This was the last regular season competition and now we can focus on the championship meet in two weeks. Over the past few years, we have consistently been one of the top two or three teams in a very tough conference and we are there once again. Our goals as a program is to be in a position to compete for conference titles and both teams are in a position to do that. We have to work on a few things and get rested and mentally focused on the championship and I know our team is excited about that.”
The A-State throwers shined on Saturday with Itamar Levi and Cristian Ravar Ladislau combining for three finishes inside the top-five. Levi won the discus throw with a mark of 54.00m (177-02) and finished second with a shot put of 18.09m (59-04.25). Ravar Ladislau took fourth place in the hammer throw with a mark of 63.25m (207-06), the second-best mark in program history. Calea Carr posted a trio of top-10 finishes in the three events she competed. She finished second in discus throw (51.18m/167-11), fourth in shot put (13.94m/43-05.00) and ninth in hammer throw (51.90m/ 170-03).
Roelf Pienaar finished first in the long jump, but his exceptional jump will not be official due to high wind at the time. Pienaar leaped to an impressive 8.08m (26-06.00), but the wind reading of plus-8.1 exceeded the plus-4.0 threshold to allow the mark. Pienaar also competed in the triple jump, finishing fourth with a leap of 14.93m (48-11.75). Shemiah Brooks impressed in the women's triple jump, posting the sixth-best jump in program history (12.50m/41-00.25) to place fourth.
Tiaan Steenkamp and David Phillips posted quality finishes in the high jump heading into the Sun Belt Championships. Steenkamp cleared 2.08m (6-09.75) to finish fourth while Phillips finished fifth with a season-best clearance of 2.03m (6-07.75). The marks rank each inside the top-five of the Sun Belt performance list. In the women's high jump, Ivery Guyton was second (1.75m/5-08.75) and Darragh May third (1.72m/5-07.50).
Sam Bell led the way for three Red Wolves that finished in pole vault. Bell vaulted 5.06m (16-07.00) to finish third while Michael Carr sailed over 4.71m (15-05.50) to place fifth. Cameron Stalknaker placed ninth with a vault of 4.41m (14-05.50).
On the track, Kristina Knott equaled her best in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.72 seconds to place second. Erika Christian finished sixth in the 400-meter dash crossing the finish line in 55.54 seconds. Andrea Perez posted the sixth-fastest 800-meter run time in program history, finishing 10th in 2:14.45.
Having set the program record in both the 4x100-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay this season, the Red Wolves were at it again on Saturday. Kristina Knott, Keturah Smith, Samone Thompson and Erika Christian took the baton for A-State and raced to a school-record time of 3:42.62 to improve on the previous record this year of 3:44.40.
Emenderlyn Iwuji and Samone Thompson finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles. Iwuji clocked a time of 14.06 seconds with Thompson crossing the line in 14.10 seconds. Three Red Wolves were in the top-10 of the 400-meter hurdles with Gracee Damron leading the way with a fifth-place time of 1:03.58. Trevene Cowan finished eighth in 1:04.64 and Jada Pollard crossed the finish line in 1:06.51 to place 10th. Rebecca Eldien posted the sixth-fastest time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in program history. She finished fifth with a time of 11:39.78.
Zach Van Gundy clocked a season-best time of 1:53.20 in the 800-meter run to finish fourth. In the 1,500-meter run, the Red Wolves had three finish inside the top-10. Drew Mueller paced the A-State finishers with a time of 3:54.09 to place fourth while Rickus Jacobs (3:56.60) and Wil Norris (3:57.22) finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Zach Rail (9:54.63) and Jesse Duvall (10:13.69) placed seventh and ninth, respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Clarence Simpkins and Jamil Peeples each ran in the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles while logging top-10 finishes in both. Simpkins finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.80 seconds and 10th in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 57.06 seconds. Peeples ran the 110-meter hurdles in 14.95 seconds to place ninth and ran the 400-meter hurdles in 56.45 seconds to finish ninth.
A-State shifts focus to the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships at Louisiana-Lafayette May 13-15.
