BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Four victories and another school record highlighted the performances turned in by the University of South Alabama men's and women's indoor track and field teams at the Privateer Invitational hosted by New Orleans at the Birmingham Crossplex on Sunday.

Patrick Rohr earned his first victory of the season in the men's mile run, posting a 4:15.47 mark — only .32 seconds off his personal best — to win the race by less than a second.  Cameron Ellis and Ben Rolader also competed in the event, posting times of 4:21.55 and 4:22.57 to come in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

Joanna McCoy improved her personal-best time in the women's 3000 meters by more than 12 seconds to win the race by a two-second margin over teammate Laura Labuschaigne.  Ashley Heitling also finished in less than 10 minutes, recording a time of 9:59.55 to help the Jags sweep the top three spots at the distance, with the trio all moving up on USA's all-time performance list.  Christoph Graf claimed the men's 3,000-meter run as well, crossing the line in 8:22.94 to finish nearly 25 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Kaitlyn Beans picked up a win in the women's triple jump, recording a distance of 12.47m to claim victory by .5m — Ariel Johnson was ninth in the discipline as well with an 11.36m mark — while also placing seventh in the long jump with an effort of 5.38m.  Taylor Dames' 1.70m height in the women's high jump tied for the best mark at the meet, also moving her into second on USA's all-time performance list, as she would finish third in the event, with fellow freshman Olivia Swan also among the top 10 after clearing 1.50m.

Rafael Scott set a school record for the second time this month in the men's 60-meter dash, qualifying with a mark of 6.70 seconds before coming in second in the finals in 6.66 seconds.  In the 200 meters, the sophomore equaled his best time of 22.91 seconds set two weeks ago to place sixth in a field of 64 runners.

Sean Collins and Niel Giliomee and came in second and third place, respectively, in the men's pole vault; the former cleared 5.00m on his first attempt, the latter set a new career-best mark when he did the same on his third and final try at the height.

Jan-Louw Kotze led a trio of Jaguars in the men's shot put, placing fifth after posting a distance of 15.55m, with Matt Weinhold coming in seventh after a career-best 15.18m mark and Zach Blahnik finishing ninth with a toss of 14.57m.  In the men's long jump, Lezyon Legarde had a 6.77m leap to tie for sixth.

Matthew Dillon moved into fourth place on the school's performance list in the men's 60-meter hurdles with a career-best 8.14 seconds in the preliminaries, going on to place sixth in the finals with a mark of 8.17 seconds — just .04 seconds and one spot ahead of teammate Ravaughn Pope.  Berta Lucas equaled the best time of her career in the women's race after posting an 8.83 mark in the finals, finishing in seventh.

In other races, Katleho Dyoyi crossed the line in 1:58.19 in the men's 800-meter run to come in ninth place, while Nicole Durham was 10th in the women's mile run with a time of 5:18.90, finishing just ahead of Ivy Chastain who recorded a career-best mark of 5:20.20 at the distance.  Marina Swanepoel posted a season-best 57.81 second time in the women's 400 meters as well, and LaMia Miller recorded a 15.37m toss in the women's weight throw during the morning session.

Results from afternoon field events were not available.

"We saw good competition today, so any time you can win events at a meet like this it's a good thing," said USA head coach Paul Brueske.  "Rafael set a school record twice — he could be on the bubble of making the national meet with his finals time — in the 60[-meter dash] and also had a personal best in the 200 [meters], and we had some other young guys step up who should move up the [Sun Belt] conference rankings.  There were a lot of good performances, and while there is still a lot of room for improvement although generally speaking I think we are headed in the right direction."

USA will next be in action Sunday when the program plays host to the Jaguar Invitational at the Birmingham Crossplex.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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