Heat Sheets
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's track and field teams head north to Lubbock Saturday for the one-day Texas Tech Open at the Terry and Linda Fuller Track and Field Complex. Events begin at 10:30 a.m. with the men's javelin throw and conclude later than night with the women's 10,000-meter run.
Senior hammer thrower Baptiste Kerjean was the Wildcats' top performer at last weekend's Texas Relays as he placed second in the final standings by the narrow margin of 22 centimeters to Florida's Kyle Strawn.
Kerjean, who was third at the Texas Relays both as a sophomore in 2012 and junior in 2013, opened with 216 feet, 2 inches, and his early-season best remained the leader until the final throw of the second round when Strawn reached 218-4 (66.55 meters). Kerjean improved to 217-7 (66.33 meters) in the fourth round, but fouled in round five and threw 215-11 in round six.
A native of St. Brieuc, France, Kerjean is one of only three hammer throwers in ACU history to reach 200 feet and this season's mark ranks him first in the Southland Conference by 12 feet (4 meters) over Southeastern Louisiana junior Jonathan Kinchen (205-11 / 62.76m).
Joining Kerjean on this event's performance list are Wildcat teammates Aaron Bynum and Jelani Rainey. In fact, Bynum is ranked among the league's top-10 competitors in three throwing events as he is listed on TFRRS.org with the fourth-best discus mark (162-2 / 49.44m) and seventh-best javelin toss (187-11 / 57.27m).
Overall, there are 18 individual Wildcats in 20 events on the Southland's top-10 performance list through the first couple weeks of the outdoor season. And among the very best of the bunch are sophomore sprinter Johnathan Farquharson, junior middle-distance runner Daniel Block, freshman pole vaulter Kenzie Walker, senior long jumper Darian Hogg and multi-athletes Ramesheon Marine, Luke Woods and Taylor Yantis.
Woods and Yantis each placed third in their respective multi-events Friday at last weekend's Bobcat Invitational hosted by Texas State.
Woods registered a lifetime best of 6,594 points as he was helped by a trio of personal records in the 110-meter hurdles (14.98 seconds), discus (123 feet-10 inches / 37.74 meters), and 1500-meter run (4:49.55). Boosted by his second-place time in the 1500m, Woods finished with a final score that was 482 points higher than his previous best of 6,112 points.
Yantis moved up from sixth to third on the final day of the heptathlon as she placed fourth in the long jump (16-10/5.13m) and third in both the javelin (102-9/31.30m) and 800m (2:32.31) to record the sixth-highest total in ACU history with 4,570 points.
Unfortunately, as Yantis rose in the standings, Marine fell from second to fifth in finishing with 4,385 points - the ninth highest score in ACU history.
Walker also was among those competing at Texas State and recorded a personal record height of 12-1.5 (3.70m), which has her tied for second in the Southland with two others. Junior Katelyn Wynn of Sam Houston State, however, is the runaway leader at 12-6 (3.81m).
Farquharson and Block, meanwhile, ran several times at the Texas Relays. Block recorded a time of 3:52.91 in the 1500m at Mike A. Myers Stadium to rank third in the Southland behind Lamar junior Sam Stabler (3:43.44) and junior Philipp Barr of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (3:50.23).
Farquharson clocked his best time in the 100m in Austin at 10.52, which is No. 2 in the league behind senior Justin Walker of Northwestern State (10.29). He and Block also were part of a Sprint Medley Relay that finished seventh in 3:22.00. Farquharson ran the first 200m and put the Wildcats in contention among the leaders from the beginning. Maliek Golden, Abilene Christian's only freshman at The Relays ran the second 200m followed by Osei Allyene-Forte (400m) and Block on the anchor 800m.
Hogg is No. 3 in the Southland Conference in the triple jump (45-2.5 / 13.78m) and ninth in the long jump (22-10 / 6.96m).
