| With most of the sprinters sitting out, the North Carolina A&T men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams relied heavily on the distance runners and field performers to put up numbers at the Duke Invitational and the Morgan State Legacy Track and Field Meet in Baltimore—and they did not disappoint!
For starters, senior Darren White set a facility record, school record and personal record in one fell swoop while running 32:00.27 in the men’s 10,000 meters. Championing the event, White lowered the Morris Williams Stadium facility record from 33:25.78 (set in 2016 by unattached athlete Chris Kelly) and decreased the school record from 32:46.73 (set in 2016 by teammate Perry Cabean). White also lowered his own PR of 33:01.8, which he established last season. But more importantly, White’s time puts him in the top 5 for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).
The men’s team saw another record break and two more first-place finishes from the field competitors as sophomores Derrick Wheeler and Lasheon Strozier excelled past their previous personal bests in the hammer throw and long jump. Wheeler, who held the previous school record at 142-feet, 9-inches, blew that up with a throw of 163-feet, 6-inches at MSU that propelled him to No. 1 in the MEAC. Strozier, having a previous PR of 51-feet, 3 ¾-inches, leapt 51-feet, 10-inches at Duke, which will maintain his position of No. 2 in the MEAC in the triple jump.
Representing for the very few sprinters at Duke, junior Joel Thomas and sophomore Michael Dickson also had splendid runs. Thomas broke the Morris Williams Stadium facility record for the 100m during preliminaries as he finished first ahead of former Aggie and professional athlete Desmond Lawrence (10.31). The previous facility record sat at 10.37 from Ottawa representative Segun Makinde (2015). Thomas finished second behind Lawrence (10.31) in the finals in 10.38.
Recovering from injury, Dickson gave a late season-debut in the 110m hurdles that started off shaky. Dickson only sprinted 14.22 in the preliminaries, but he managed to deliver a first-place finish of 13.88 in the finals, shooting him straight to No. 1 in the MEAC.
“My distance crew stepped up this week, and I’m smiling two weeks out from conference about what we can accomplish as a team,” said the director of track and field programs Duane Ross. “In terms of improvements, we have to get some of our people healthy and we have some key people that are still feeling some bumps and bruises. We just have to get them back mentally and physically again, but we’re in really good shape.”
The women’s distance runners and their leading hammer thrower, junior Imani Abraham, were also on a mission to climb the MEAC rankings as several of the ladies moved up the MEAC performance list to top 5 positions. Abraham broke the school record of 151-feet, 7-inches, set by Demetria Dickens (2016), with a hammer throw of 155-feet, 1-inch. Dickens moved to No. 5 in the MEAC while crushing her previous best of 146-feet, 3-inches. In the 800m, freshman G’ Jasymne Butler also elevated in the conference as she diminished her PR of 2:14.83, which was 11th in the MEAC, and found 2:11.24 in the event, putting her third in the conference. Even though freshman Camile Martin and junior Miranda Green were already in the top 5 for the women’s 3000m steeplechase, the ladies still found advancement. Martin’s PR run of 11:25.53 over the weekend, which ranked 11th at the meet, moved her from No. 4 in the conference to No. 3. Green, who was fifth in the MEAC, took Martin’s previous No. 4 position in the conference as she ran a PR 11:30.65. Green placed 14th in the competition.
Next week the Aggies will take a break from competition before the 2017 MEAC Outdoor Championships begin May 4-7. |
