ARLINGTON, Texas (5/14/17) – The Arkansas State University track and field team finished competition at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships Sunday with four more individual champions for a total of seven over the three-day meet.
The A-State women had a strong outing over the three days and finished second in the team standings with a total of 118 points. Texas State won the women's team championship with 154.5 points while UT Arlington earned the men's title with 151 points. The A-State men ended the competition with 98 points to finish tied for third.
"We are extremely proud of both teams," said A-State head coach Jim Patchell. "The women fought hard the whole meet and took the lead late, but Texas State came back on us at the end. It was a huge improvement from indoor. The men also competed well, but we did leave a few points out there. Jaylen had a great meet and finally broke a 40-year record in the 100 and set a conference record in the 200."
Jaylen Bacon, the high point scorer of the meet with 20.75 points, broke the school record in the 100-meter dash held by Ed Preston since 1976. Bacon won the event with a time of 10.00 seconds, tied for the fastest time in the NCAA West Region this season and the sixth-best time in all of NCAA this year. His day didn't end in the 100-meter dash, as he also won the 200-meter dash and entered the top-10 nationally with a Sun Belt record time of 20.35 seconds.
Shemiah Brooks won her second individual championship in as many days with a first place run in the 100-meter hurdles. She posted a personal best of 13.43 seconds in the race to win and was joined in scoring by Samone Thompson, who finished fifth in 13.74 seconds. Thompson was also in the 400-meter hurdles final, finishing fourth in 1:00.68.
Calea Carr earned the top finish in discus throw with a mark of 53.54m (175-08). The throw was a personal-best for Carr and ranks third in program history. Michael Carr placed second in pole vault with a clearance of 5.12m (16-09.50) and was joined in the top eight by Sam Bell who finished sixth with a vault of 4.87m (15-11.75).
A second place finish by Viktoriia Sadokhina (12.96m/42-06.25) and eighth place finish by Brooks (12.18m/39-11.50) in the triple jump added nine more points for the Red Wolves. Tiaan Steenkamp cleared 2.12m (6-11.50) in the high jump to place second. David Phillips cleared 2.04m (6-08.25) to finish fifth.
Nick Hilson earned silver in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal-best of 51.52 seconds. Brianna Hardiman finished on the podium in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.14 seconds to place third. The time ranks as the fourth-fastest in program history. A fourth place finish (46.53) in the 4x100-meter relay got the day started for the A-State women. Anaelle Charles (4:41.76) and Sammy Brainard (4:41.18) finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 1,500-meter run to add six more points toward the team total. De'Airis Weakley placed sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.76 seconds while Elijah Ross was sixth in the men's 100-meter dash with a time of 10.44 seconds.
Heinrich Herbst had a productive day for the Red Wolves. He finished fifth (1:52.07) in the 800-meter run and third in the 1,500-meter run in 3:53.72. Rickus Jacobs was also in the top five of the 1,500-meter run, placing fourth in 3:54.45. Elizabeth Gillette (18:15.81) and Rebecca Eldien (18:25.60) finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run to complete the individual races for the women.
The Red Wolves have several individuals in position to compete at the NCAA West Region Preliminary May 25-27 in Austin, Texas. Entries to the meet will be finalized at a later date and announced at that time.
