LAFAYETTE, La. (5/13/22) – Bennett Pascoe repeated as men's steeplechase champion in Friday at the Home Bank Track and Field Complex, breaking the meet record in the event to cap off a strong second day for the Arkansas State track and field team at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships.
Pascoe's effort was one of several standout performances that helped the A-State men move up the team scoreboard on Friday, with the Red Wolves sitting second with 54 points behind South Alabama's 66 entering the final day.
The A-State women continued to dominate the team standings, entering the meet's final day with 98 points ahead of second-place Texas State's 47.
Before Pascoe's record-breaking run, Elizabeth Martin, Sophia Oury and Marina McDonough piled on 16 points for the women's squad in the steeplechase. Martin took silver and clocked the second-best time in program history, finishing in 10:40.12. Oury placed fourth in 10:56.55 while Marina McDonough moved up to seventh in school history with a sixth-place run of 11:15.13.
Pascoe concluded the day's events and proved why he continues to be the league's top steeplechaser, winning by over 10 seconds. Grayson Young placed sixth with a time of 9:29.55 to earn three more points for the men.
Earlier in the day, Carter Shell took gold in the men's long jump with a leap of 7.67m (25-2.0), while Courtney Thomas jumped 7.31m (23-11.75) to place sixth. It marked Shell's third gold medal in as many opportunities this season, indoor and outdoor combined.
Evening storms delayed action on the track for over two hours, but once action resumed, the Red Wolves picked up where they left off.
Willem Coertzen took silver in the men's shot put and did so on his sixth and final throw, launching the implement a personal-best 17.41m (57-1.5), which is seventh in school history. The freshman also took silver indoors in the event earlier this season. Jacob Tracy placed sixth with a toss of 16.55m (54-3.75).
Evangelynn Harris took bronze in the women's shot put with a season-best throw of 15.51m (50-10.75), while Grace Flowers (15.28m/50-1.75) and Selase Sampram (14.55m/47-9.0) finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
After taking gold in the javelin on Thursday, Camryn Newton-Smith secured a silver-medal finish in the heptathlon and broke her own school record in the process, totaling 5,536 points. The Greenbank, Australia, native added four more points with a fifth-place finish in the long jump later in the afternoon.
Another one of the conference's top men's distance runners – A-State's Seth Waters – registered the top prelims time in the men's 800 meters, cruising through his heat in 1:51.53. Freshman Lasse Funck will join Waters in Saturday's final, finishing as an automatic qualifier in his section with a time of 1:52.89.
Before Waters took his heat, rookie Cheyenne Melvin advanced to the women's 800 meter final by winning her heat with a time of 2:13.17.
On the straightaways, Jonae Cook's late push helped her win her heat and automatically advance to Saturday's 100-meter final, as she finished in 11.83.
Ke'Von Holder and Will Glass both moved on to the final in the 110-meter hurdles after the lengthy weather delay. Holder earned an automatic-qualifier spot with a time of 14.14 while Glass finished as a time qualifier, crossing in 14.37. On the women's side, Chelby Melvin earned one of the final coveted time-qualifier slots with a time of 13.99 in the 100-meter hurdles.
In the 400 meter prelims, Kobey Hill won his section with a career-best mark of 47.91 to advance, while Namibia Clavier just missed the cut on the women's side, running a season-best 56.23 to finish 10th and move into the top-10 in program history in the event.
NEXT UP
The Red Wolves continue their hunt for Sun Belt Conference titles on Saturday with the final day of the championships in Lafayette, beginning with the men's triple jump at 11:30 a.m. The first track final of the day, the women's 4x100-meter relay, is set for a 4 p.m. start and can be viewed live on ESPN+.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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