Track and Field | 4/18/2019 10:58:00 PM
BEREA, Ky. Methodist sophomore
Makayla Lawler cruised to victory in the women's 10,000-meter run Thursday afternoon at the 2019 USA South Athletic Conference Championship Meet, posting a winning time of 40 minutes, 23.72 seconds that bested here next closest competitor by more than two minutes.
The two-day championship meet ended its opening day with the Monarch women tied for third place with 21 points and the Methodist men in fourth place with 27 points.
The women's and men's 10K races were the final events on the oval at Berea College as Lawler,
Urbina Ulloa and later,
Nathan Zauner added points to Methodist's team totals.
Ulloa (45:10.90) scored a sixth-place finish in the women's 10K and Zauner followed the women's race with a fifth-place finish in the men's, posting a time of 35.54.28.
Methodist registered several personal records (PRs) on the day, beginning with
Vontre Howard's fifth-place heave of 39.48 meters (129 feet-6 inches) in the opening field of the championship, the men's javelin throw.
Along with his PR in the javelin, Howard enjoyed personal bests in the long jump and 100-meter dash. He claimed a fifth-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 6.19m (20-3¾), and was 13th in the 100 in a time of 11.50 seconds.
Finishing the day with a pair of second places was indoor track All-American
Jeremy Prichard. Early in the event schedule he posted a runner-up time of 15.24 seconds in the 110m high hurdles, and later cleared a height of 1.85m (6-0¾) to finish second in the men's high jump.
Between those two events he posted the third-fastest time, 22.28 seconds, in the preliminary heats of the men's 200m dash, advancing on to Friday's championship heat in the event.
Also moving into that championship dash will be teammate
Erran Greene who was second in the prelims with a time of 22.17. Both his and Prichard's prelim results were PRs.
Jakim Graham joined Prichard in earning points in the high hurdles, finishing fifth, 16.07, in his first collegiate track championship meet.
Jimlyn Laurent continued to lead the Methodist women's sprint group, earning Friday championship heat berths in both of the events in which she ran on Thursday.
The women's 100 was first on her event list and she set a new PR with a time, 12.47, that is the top seed for the championship dash. Later in the afternoon on Thursday, Laurent posted the fourth-fastest time, 26.50, in the women's 200.
Another point scorer on the oval was senior
Lindsey Pritchard, who posted a fourth-place time of 13:11.08 in the women's 3,000m steeplechase. In the men's steeplechase,
Connor Ayers posted a PR with a sixth-place time of 10:28.37.
Several other Monarchs scored points with PRs in their respective field events:
- In the men's hammer throw, freshman Jake Patterson earned sixth place with a toss of 32.03m (105-1), and in the women's hammer, Deasha Frisby set a personal best with a toss of 26.21m (86-0).
- Chakalyn Patterson was actually the first Monarch to score on Thursday, earning fifth place in the women's javelin with her third of six attempts, which dug into the turf at 27.25m (89-5).
- Late in the afternoon Kimeesha Whitlock landed in the sand pit with a leap of 5.05m (16-7), picking up a fourth-place finish for her Methodist teammates.
Piedmont College leads both the men's and women's team title chase, heading the women's leaderboard with 98 points and the men's with 90 points.
