BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (2/7/16) – Kristina Knott tied the 60-meter dash school record held by Sharika Nelvis to highlight the day of competition by the Arkansas State University track and field squads in the Jaguar Invitational at the Birmingham CrossPlex Sunday.
“We split the team up this weekend and both groups had a lot of positives,” said A-State head coach Jim Patchell. “We still trained pretty hard this week and managed to get quite a few personal-bests and two school records. Erin Farmer broke the school record again in the shot put and Kristina (Knott) tied Sharika's school record in the 60. We are through this weekend relatively healthy and now it's time to rest and get mentally sharp for the conference championship in a couple of weeks.”
Knott won the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.28 seconds, equaling the record set by Nelvis in 2014. The time ranks tied for the sixth-fastest in the nation this season. De'Airis Weakley finished fourth in the race, posting a time of 7.63 in the finals. Weakley posted a time of 7.58 in the preliminaries, a personal-best that ranks fourth-best at A-State. Weakley also ran in the 200-meter dash, finishing sixth with a time of 24.79 seconds.
Keturah Smith won the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.66 seconds. The win marked her second in the 400-meter dash this season in three meets. Emenderlyn Iwuji won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.62 seconds. Trevene Cowan finished seventh with a time of 8.93 seconds, but she qualified for the finals with a time of 8.88 in the preliminaries, the eighth-fastest time in program history.
Rickus Jacobs won the 5,000-meter run to make it four wins on the day for A-State. Jacobs ran the race in 14:53.22 with Wil Norris finishing second in 15:08.19. Norris also was second in the mile run, clocking a time of 4:19.05. Jacobs wasn't far behind, finishing fifth with a time of 4:20.16.
Jaylen Bacon posted a third place finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.74 seconds. He also finished third in the 200-meter dash, posting a time of 21.49 seconds. Roelf Pienaar finished second in the long jump with a leap of 7.18m (23-06.75).
A-State is scheduled to compete at the Samford Invitational and Multis next weekend (Fri-Sat.) with the Sun Belt Conference meet on Feb. 23-24 at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
