Thursday, April 18
Walnut, CA
All Day
Abilene Christian
at
Mt. SAC Relays
Photo by: Gary Rhodes
4/18/2013 10:19:00 AM | Track & Field
Mt. SAC Relays Meet Program
ABILENE – Six members of the Abilene Christian track and field program, including seniors Baptiste Kerjean and Amanda Ouedraogo, will visit Walnut, Calif., this weekend for the 55th running of the Mt. SAC Relays while the remaining Wildcats head to Baylor Saturday for the Michael Johnson Dr. Pepper Classic.
As NCAA automatic qualifiers this season, Kerjean and Ouedraogo are entered into the elite divisions of their respective events, both of which take place Saturday afternoon. Also representing ACU on the West Coast are senior Chloe Susset in the Olympic Developmental Elite 3,000-meter steeplechase, freshman Xavier King in the open 1,500 and seniors Ayesha Rumble and Banjo Jaiyesimi in the open 800m.
Kerjean currently owns the second-best hammer throw in NCAA Division-II at 213 feet-8 inches (65.13 meters) and will attempt to better that mark against an all-star field that features the top-two throwers in all of D-I, Alec Faldermeyer of UCLA (228-10) and Nick Miller of Oklahoma State (227-4).
Kerjean's competition also will include veterans such as Kibwe Johnson, the 2011 USA Outdoor Champion in the hammer throw, and Slovakian Libor Charfreitag, who placed sixth at the 2008 Olympics.
Ouedraogo, a former national champion in the triple jump, has competed in her primary event only once previously this spring, but her effort of 43-03.25 (13.19m) was good enough to place fourth at the Texas Relays. Ouedraogo's distance also served as an outdoor personal best and ranks second only to Angelo State's Kearah Danville (43-7) in the D-II rankings.
Ouedraogo will be among a field of 10 individuals this weekend competing for the Mt. SAC elite triple jump title. Her competition includes nationally ranked collegians Alitta Boyd of USC (43-8) and Candace Alvarez of Hawaii (42-9.5), plus several international participants, including 2012 Olympian Ayanna Alexander of Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico's Jaqueline Triana.
Susset and Rumble are among ACU's 15 outdoor provisional qualifiers and both enter this weekend ranked seventh in their primary events. Susset also is the 11th-ranked runner in the 1500m with a top time of 4:32.87, which she recorded last weekend at West Texas A&M.
The weekend before that, Susset won the steeplechase at the Texas Tech Open behind a season-best time of 10:48.79, while Rumble placed fourth there with a 800m time of 2:11.22.
Middle-distance runners Jaiyesimi and King are just a few seconds shy of attaining provisional marks in the 800m and 1500m, respectively. Jaiyesimi's 800m season-best of 1:52.58 currently ranks him 26th in D-II and is a mere .08 seconds shy of the provisional standard, while King ranks 50th with his mark of 3:56.00. King – an all-conference cross country selection in his first fall at ACU – needs to run under 3:52.00 in order receive national championship consideration.
ACU also is expected to face some steep competition at Baylor, where this year's field at the Michael Johnson Dr. Pepper Classic will include top D-I athletes from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Sam Houston State and TCU. The Wildcats will also face a pair of Lone Star Conference rivals from Angelo State and Tarleton State.
Events begin at the Hart-Patterson Track Complex Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the women's javelin and conclude at 8:20 p.m. with the running of the men's 4x440-yard relay.
Representing the Wildcats in Waco will be more than a dozen provisional qualifiers, including sprinters Johnathan Farquharson, Shennae Steele and Lexus Williams, throwers Andrew Hudson, Tara Riley, Lauren Hartwick, Ameilia Mitchell and Shalania Lakey, and multi-athletes Matthew Stark and Cassie Brooks.
Stark and Brooks each recorded career best scores during their outdoor season debuts in the decathlon and heptathlon last weekend at West Texas A&M. Brooks totaled 4,954 points – a personal record by 153 points, while Stark won four events en route to scoring 6,276 points – bettering his previous career best by 172 points.
Brooks is ACU's highest ranked provisional qualifier with her fourth-ranked heptathlon score, while junior Andrew Hudson is currently ninth in the discus behind a season best throw of 172-0 (52.43m) at the TCU Invitational.
ABILENE – Six members of the Abilene Christian track and field program, including seniors Baptiste Kerjean and Amanda Ouedraogo, will visit Walnut, Calif., this weekend for the 55th running of the Mt. SAC Relays while the remaining Wildcats head to Baylor Saturday for the Michael Johnson Dr. Pepper Classic.
As NCAA automatic qualifiers this season, Kerjean and Ouedraogo are entered into the elite divisions of their respective events, both of which take place Saturday afternoon. Also representing ACU on the West Coast are senior Chloe Susset in the Olympic Developmental Elite 3,000-meter steeplechase, freshman Xavier King in the open 1,500 and seniors Ayesha Rumble and Banjo Jaiyesimi in the open 800m.
Kerjean currently owns the second-best hammer throw in NCAA Division-II at 213 feet-8 inches (65.13 meters) and will attempt to better that mark against an all-star field that features the top-two throwers in all of D-I, Alec Faldermeyer of UCLA (228-10) and Nick Miller of Oklahoma State (227-4).
Kerjean's competition also will include veterans such as Kibwe Johnson, the 2011 USA Outdoor Champion in the hammer throw, and Slovakian Libor Charfreitag, who placed sixth at the 2008 Olympics.
Ouedraogo, a former national champion in the triple jump, has competed in her primary event only once previously this spring, but her effort of 43-03.25 (13.19m) was good enough to place fourth at the Texas Relays. Ouedraogo's distance also served as an outdoor personal best and ranks second only to Angelo State's Kearah Danville (43-7) in the D-II rankings.
Ouedraogo will be among a field of 10 individuals this weekend competing for the Mt. SAC elite triple jump title. Her competition includes nationally ranked collegians Alitta Boyd of USC (43-8) and Candace Alvarez of Hawaii (42-9.5), plus several international participants, including 2012 Olympian Ayanna Alexander of Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico's Jaqueline Triana.
Susset and Rumble are among ACU's 15 outdoor provisional qualifiers and both enter this weekend ranked seventh in their primary events. Susset also is the 11th-ranked runner in the 1500m with a top time of 4:32.87, which she recorded last weekend at West Texas A&M.
The weekend before that, Susset won the steeplechase at the Texas Tech Open behind a season-best time of 10:48.79, while Rumble placed fourth there with a 800m time of 2:11.22.
Middle-distance runners Jaiyesimi and King are just a few seconds shy of attaining provisional marks in the 800m and 1500m, respectively. Jaiyesimi's 800m season-best of 1:52.58 currently ranks him 26th in D-II and is a mere .08 seconds shy of the provisional standard, while King ranks 50th with his mark of 3:56.00. King – an all-conference cross country selection in his first fall at ACU – needs to run under 3:52.00 in order receive national championship consideration.
ACU also is expected to face some steep competition at Baylor, where this year's field at the Michael Johnson Dr. Pepper Classic will include top D-I athletes from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Sam Houston State and TCU. The Wildcats will also face a pair of Lone Star Conference rivals from Angelo State and Tarleton State.
Events begin at the Hart-Patterson Track Complex Saturday at 9:30 a.m. with the women's javelin and conclude at 8:20 p.m. with the running of the men's 4x440-yard relay.
Representing the Wildcats in Waco will be more than a dozen provisional qualifiers, including sprinters Johnathan Farquharson, Shennae Steele and Lexus Williams, throwers Andrew Hudson, Tara Riley, Lauren Hartwick, Ameilia Mitchell and Shalania Lakey, and multi-athletes Matthew Stark and Cassie Brooks.
Stark and Brooks each recorded career best scores during their outdoor season debuts in the decathlon and heptathlon last weekend at West Texas A&M. Brooks totaled 4,954 points – a personal record by 153 points, while Stark won four events en route to scoring 6,276 points – bettering his previous career best by 172 points.
Brooks is ACU's highest ranked provisional qualifier with her fourth-ranked heptathlon score, while junior Andrew Hudson is currently ninth in the discus behind a season best throw of 172-0 (52.43m) at the TCU Invitational.
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Monday, October 26
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Monday, October 26
