|
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Friday, May 22, 2009
South Plains and
Barton Community College appear poised for a head-to-head battle for
the men’s team national championship at the 2009 NJCAA Outdoor Track
and Field Championships at Gowans Stadium.
South Plains, the
defending men’s team national champion, has a 13-point lead on
Barton 56-43, but both have several head-to-head battles in
Saturday’s championship finale.
South Plains has 14
runners who qualified for finals out of Friday’s preliminaries.
Barton has 11 qualifiers. It all might come down to the final event
of the championship, the 4x400-meter relay. Barton is the No. 1
qualifier at 3 minutes, 10.01 seconds. South Plains is No. 2 at
3:11.79.
Both the Texans and
Cougars earned individual titles on Friday.
South Plains’ Kyron
Blaise and Dellon Williams went 1-2 in the triple jump. Blaise
jumped 51-7.75, while Williams went 51-4.5.
Barton’s Max Alonso
won his second national title of the championships. After winning
the discus on Thursday, Alonso added the shot put title to his
resume, posting a winning mark of 54-1.75.
On Saturday, all
eyes will be on Olympic-class hurdler Ryan Braithwaite to earn the
No. 1 qualifying spot in the 110-meter hurdles finals with a blazing
time of 13.35 seconds.
South Plains; middle
distance runner Fred Samoi will be the top qualifier in both the
800- and 1,500-meter runs. Samoi’s qualifying 800 time was 1:52.19
and his 1,500 time was 3:59.71
Central Arizona’s
Kurt Felix successfully defended his national Decathlon
championship. Felix rolled to victory with 7,027 points, easily
surpassing South Plains’ Jordan Coffman and surprise bronze medalist
Jerid NeSmith of Hutchinson. Felix won 4 of the 10 events.
Felix and Central
Arizona teammate Omar Jones swept the top two spots in the open
javelin. Jones was the event champion throwing 214-7. Felix was
second at 213-6.
Rend Lake sprinter
Ryan Bailey was the top qualifier in both the 100 and 200 meters.
Bailey ran the 100 in 10.05 seconds and the 200 in 20-45 seconds.
Action begins at 9
a.m. on Saturday morning and the finals begin at 1 p.m. |
