Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships Web Site
ABILENE - Abilene Christian visits Central Arkansas' Bill Stephens Complex this weekend for the 2014 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. It is the last outdoor meet this season for the Wildcats, whose men's team won the first seven Southland Conference titles from 1964-70.The championship meet will start Friday with the men's pole vault starting at 1 p.m., followed by the 100-meter hurdles in the women's heptathlon at 2 p.m. The men's decathlon gets underway with the 100-meter dash at 2:30 p.m. and the women's hammer throw is slated to start at 3 p.m. Day one of the championships conclude with the men's and women's 10,000 meters beginning at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, multi-events will commence at 10 a.m. with field events starting 3 p.m. Preliminaries for running-only events are slated for 5 p.m. On Sunday, field events wrap up starting at 10 a.m. while running event finals begin at 2:05 p.m.
Team championship trophies and the meet's top male and female high-point scorer will be presented at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday.
Despite being away from the Southland Conference for 40 years, ACU's men's team has won the third most outdoor championships behind Lamar with 10 and former member Texas-Arlington, which won its eighth and final SLC title in 2007.
Among the 66 individual champions from those Wildcat teams of yesteryear were jumper and javelin thrower Jerry Dyes, sprinter Riley Dunn, distance runner Charles Christmas and hurdler Craig Fox. In fact, all four of these gentlemen took turns winning the meet's Individual High-Point Scorer Award from 1964-67.
Dyes and Christmas also hold a rare distinction in that they are two of only 11 Southland Conference competitors to win three events at a single meet. Dyes, who would later serve as ACU head coach from 1989-92, won the long and triple jumps and javelin at the 1964 meet, and Christmas was the 1966 champion in the 880 yards, one and two-mile runs.
Adonson Shallow of Southeastern Louisiana was the last individual to accomplish this feat of three wins at a single meet in 2010 as earned gold in the shot put, discus and hammer. Southeastern Louisiana won its first indoor championship in school history this past February with 119 points and will look to duplicate Stephen F. Austin's 2013 sweep of both indoors and outdoors.
The SFA Ladyjacks, meanwhile, are in search of their sixth consecutive title and seventh in school history. However, they will be challenged by Sam Houston State, which snapped their five-year indoor championship winning streak by a score of 124-109.
The ACU women finished ninth in their Southland Conference Championship debut with 25 points, but 20 of those points were secured by senior Reyare Thomas who exhausted her eligibility following the indoor season. The five other points came from freshman Taylor Yantis in the pentathlon, senior Shalania Lakey in the weight throw and senior Lexus Williams in the 60-meter hurdles.
Those three should all be expected to score again as Williams is the No. 3 hurdler in the conference behind a season-best time of 13.83 seconds, while Lakey (hammer) and Yantis (heptathlon) are seventh in their respective events. Lakey's top hammer throw this season traveled 173 feet-11 inches (53.00m) and Yantis totaled a season-high 4,570 points at the Bobcat Invitational.
Williams, Lakey and Yantis also have event teammates capable of giving the Wildcats' one-two scoring punch. Lauren Hartwick has the eighth-best hammer throw this spring of 169-7, and in the hurdles, freshman Ramesheon Marine is ranked 10th with a time of 14.08. Marine just missed scoring in the indoor pentathlon, and in her collegiate heptathlon debut at Texas State, she scored 4,385 points to place fifth.
And while it will be tough to replace Thomas, freshman Shaunice Guyton has the league's fourth-fastest 200-meter time of 24.00 and has season bests of 12.23 in the 100m and 59.43 in the 400m.
Points on the track could also be claimed by freshman middle-distance runner Diana Garcia Munoz, who has the seventh fastest 1500m time of 4:41.30. And in the field events, the Wildcats should be able to count on rookie pole vaulter Kenzie Walker (7th - 12-2.5), freshman discus thrower Sydney Shelstead (8th - 144-2) and senior javelin thrower Amelia Mitchell (5th - 146-1).
Mitchell was the Lone Star Conference runner-up in the javelin last spring (143-6) and went on to place fifth at NCAA D-II Championships with a personal best of 152-4.
The ACU men return all their scorers from a sixth-place (46 points) showing at the indoor meet, and should receive an additional boost from senior Aaron Bynum in the javelin and Andrew Hudson in the discus. Bynum could potentially score in three throwing events this weekend, but he's at his best in the javelin, finishing third in this event at the 2013 Lone Star Conference Championships with a mark of 194-3. And earlier this spring, he set a PR of 195-0 that ranks sixth in the league.
In the discus, Bynum ranks third with a distance of 169-1, and he ranks 10th in the hammer at 159-6.
Hudson was the 2013 Lone Star Conference Champion in the discus (187-7) and later a DII all-America after placing eighth at nationals with an effort of (170-0). But because of an injury, the second-year Wildcat was held out of action until mid-April when he reached a distance of 152-0 in his season debut at ACU's Wes Kittley Invitational. And at last weekend's Red Raider Open he moved into the Southland's top-10 with a mark of 156-6.
Elsewhere in the throws, senior and two-time outdoor all-America Baptiste Kerjean will look to win his third straight conference title in the hammer. He won the 2012 LSC hammer title with a distance of 205-6 and the 2013 crown behind a toss of 209-10. Kerjean finished last spring as the DII national runner-up (218-0) and placed fourth this winter in the Southland's indoor weight throw competition (62-5).
Wildcat fans also can expect to see sophomore Jelani Rainey contending for big points in the discus and hammer. His season bests coming into this weekend are 159-3 and 170-6, respectively.
On the track, sophomore Johnathan Farquharson should score with both relays as well as individually in the 100m (10.34) and 200m (21.41). He may also get some help in the 200m from Devan Brown, who just last weekend in Lubbock recorded the eighth-best time in the Southland at 21.20 seconds.
Junior Daniel Block is another two-event scoring threat for the Wildcats as he is the league's No. 4 runner in the 800m (1:51.27) and No. 5 competitor in the 1500m (3:52.91). Block is coming off a very solid showing two weeks ago at the Drake Relays, where he placed third in the 800m in 1:52.23 to finish right behind Long Beach State's Chris Low (1:51.74) and Purdue's Kevin Griffith (1:52.21).
Sophomore multi-athletes Jeremy Tatham and Luke Woods will likely be among the select few individuals to score in a field and track event. They are currently ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, in the hurdles, while Tatham also is the No. 8 triple jumper (47-7) - one spot behind teammate Darian Hogg (47-10) and two ahead of classmate Malcolm Barnes (46-8).
Woods won the LSC's heptathlon as a freshman and was the runner-up during this winter's Southland Conference Championships, scoring 4,934 points. And in his lone decathlon this spring, he scored 6,594 points to place third at the Texas State Bobcat Invitational, recording PRs in the 400m, 110 hurdles, discus and 1500m.
Woods is the Southland's third-ranked decathlete behind New Orleans freshman Karl Saluri (7497 points) and SFA junior Cody Rhodes (6629 points).
