Track and Field | 4/28/2021 7:41:00 PM
BEREA, Ky. Methodist's men's and women's track and field competitors were making noise Wednesday on the first day of the two-day USA South Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championship at Berea College, capturing three individual event titles on the way to second-place standings in both the men's and women's team competitions.
Thialen Broughton won the men's pole vault shortly before
Jake Patterson led a 1-2 Methodist finish in the men's discus throw. Late in the day it was
Makayla Lawler taking care of business on the oval, racing to a first-place finish in the women's 10,000-meter run.
Broughton came into the championship meet with the top performance in the league during the regular season, then upheld that standing by clearing a winning height Wednesday of 3.50 meters (11 feet-5.75 inches). He had missed that height on his first two attempts but sailed over the bar on his third and final vault at that height.
Patterson won the discus with a best throw of 40.28m (132-2), edging out teammate
Nick Wiggins (38.91, 127-8) for the top of the podium. Methodist piled on more points in the event with
Jordan Bediako's (31.54, 103-5) fifth-place finish.
In the second to last event of the opening day, Lawler charged from her second-place position to take over the lead approaching the halfway point of the race to eventually win the event with a time of 41 minutes, 6.65 seconds.
Piedmont College's Addie Bolton had a 12-second lead over Lawler after nine laps of the 400m oval but Lawler slashed that deficit to just two seconds on the next lap before overtaking Bolton on the 11th lap.
The Methodist senior continued to stretch her lead over the back half of the race, earning a 42-second victory over Bolton who had been giving up ground to third-place finisher, the Monarchs'
Caroline Stubblefield (44:12.87).
Chakalyn Patterson racked up points for the Methodist women in three different events. She was third in the high jump, breaking a three-way tie at 1.33m (4-4.25) by clearing that height in the fewest attempts; fifth in the javelin throw with a new personal best (PR) of 28.43m (93-3); and earned an eighth place in the long jump with a best leap of 4.13m (13-6.75).
The men were also making noise in the field events to go along with their stellar discus and pole vault performances.
Cameron Schwartz (43.16, 141-7),
Romone Belk Jr. (38.87, 127-6, a PR) and
Komla Akogo (36.52, 119-9) placed second, fifth and eighth, respectively, in the javelin, while
Isaiah Cuthrell (6.32, 20-9) and
Keyshaun Pete (6.06, 19-10.75) were taking fourth and seventh, respectively, in the long jump.
Cuthrell, Akogo and
Stephen Dukes nearly made up half the points-earning places in the men's high jump. Cuthrell (1.78, 5-10) was third, Akogo (1.78, 5-10) was fourth and Dukes (1.63, 5-4.25) was sixth. Cuthrell earning his spot over Akogo by taking fewer attempts to reach their shared final height.
Out on the track,
Connor Ayers brought home a second-place finish for the men in the 3,000m steeplechase final, posting a runner-up time of 10:31.20.
And in the final event on Wednesday's schedule,
Drew Topoly and
Xavier McLamb earned the Monarchs points in the men's 10,000. Topoly (34:14.45) finished second while McLamb (35:19.44) was fifth.
Preliminary heats of several events were also contested on Wednesday, with Methodist pushing a few of its competitors from the prelim heats into championship finals on Thursday.
Ethan Ward and
AJ Matthews will run in the 100m dash final after posting the fifth and seventh fastest times in the qualifying heats. Ward blazed to a new PR with his time of 11.10 seconds, and Matthews, too, set a personal record with his time of 11.15.
Heading into the championship heat of the 200m will be
Richard Staley (22.71) and Matthews (23.11), who both recorded new PRs in the prelim heats.
In the men's 400, Dukes and Staley raced their way out of the prelims into the championship final on Thursday. Dukes won his prelim heat with a time of 51.45 and will be seeded second, while Staley will be seeded sixth after Wednesday's 52.12.
Set to race in the women's 400m hurdles final is
Sarah Jackson whose new PR of 1:21.43 will be the fifth seed in the championship heat.
With the Wednesday event schedule complete, the Methodist men accumulated 86 points and trail Piedmont by just three points, and the Monarch women are tied for second with Covenant College with 30 points, both chasing after Piedmont which staked an early claim to the title with 106 points on the opening day.
Thursday's final session was moved up to 8 a.m. for all events due to expected late afternoon weather conditions.
