Sun Belt Conference Championships Central
MOBILE, Ala. - The University of South Alabama Jaguars are geared up for this weekend's Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, to be held in the Convocation Center in Jonesboro, Ark. This year's finale will begin Saturday, Feb. 24 with the long jump for men and the women's high jump, shot put, pole vault, all scheduled for 10 a.m. The meet will conclude with 23 individual championship finals on Sunday, Feb. 25. Field events on Day-2 start at 9 a.m. with men's weight throw and women's triple jump, while the gun goes off for running events at 1 p.m. with the mile run. Live results will be provided by Delta Timing.
The men's squad fell short of repeating as champions in last season's conference meet, losing the title to host institution Middle Tennessee 153 - 147. The Jags score a record 120 points in the distance events, including the victorious medley relay, that went on to finish ninth at the NCAA Indoor Championships after breaking the SBC record twice last year. Senior Vincent Rono was named the meet's Most Outstanding Performer after winning the 800m, mile, 3000m, 5000m, and running a leg on the DMR, accounting for 40 points in total, the Championships high scorer.
The women's team had a half-point lead after Day-1 last season, but was outgunned in the Sunday events. Still the squad captured fourth, just 5.5 pts from runner-up North Texas (97). Western Kentucky took the crown, scoring 115 points. Nicole Knox (high jump, 4x400m relay) and Ajoke Odumosu (400m, 4x400m relay) led a true team effort, earning two titles apiece, while Florence Edi took the inaugural pentathlon.
As this season's performance list seems to indicate, the men's team title should come down to the defending champs (MTSU), the host school (Arkansas State), Western Kentucky, and the 19th-ranked Jags. South Alabama leads the SBC with six No. 1 seeds going in to the weekend, which doesn't include the aforementioned DMR, which the Jags have yet to field, but are presumptive favorites. The Blue Raiders and the Indians have four athletes each with the best mark in the conference. These three teams account for 14 of the 17 total event leaders. The Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky (4x400m relay), Louisiana-Monroe (shot put), and Arkansas-Little Rock (DMR) own the remainder.
The host school's men's side is the leader when it comes to athletes presently in scoring position (top-8). The Indians have 25 scorers, based posted performances, while the Mufreesboro team shows 22, the Hilltoppers rank third with 16, and the Jaguars have 14 such athletes.
South Alabama hopes lay with Rono and the distance runners again this season. That unit returns all points contributors save for Stephen Larubi, who appears to out with an injury as he has been all year. The elder Larubi, Harry, looks to be more fit than he was in 2006, owning the fastest time in the SBC for 800m (1:50.77) and is likely to compete in the mile, 3000m, and 5000m. His success will be key in fueling the Jags run for the Championship, along with a reasonably healthy Tonny Okello, a four-time champ on the 2005 title team, and newcomer Micah Tirop (No. 1-seed - 5000m). Rono is the top-ranked mile runner in the country.
In the sprint events, the Jags possess the top seeds in the 55m and 400m. Jags Ahmed Awesu (6.26 - NCAA provisional time), the reigning SBC 55m champion and school record-holder, and newcomer Oluwagbenga Awoleye (47.43), the new school record-holder at 400m, will have to hold their own against the massive sprint contingent from Middle Tennessee. Juan Walker has the best conference time in the 55 hurdles, third in the 55m dash, and is fourth, just behind teammate Jermaine Barton, in the 200m. Fellow senior Reid is No.1 in the 200m, third in the 400m, and fourth in the short dash.
For the Jaguars to counter the Blue Raiders sprint depth, they will depend on improving sophomores and Mobile, Ala., natives Gary Lambert II and Timothy Johnson. Lambert set a new personal best of 6.49 in the 55m at Florida in January, ranking him 13th against the field. Johnson ranks 11th in the 400m at 49.05 from the Meyo Invitational at Notre Dame, and will also compete at 200m. His importance will also be relative to the DMR, where he will likely run the 400m leg.
The field events are slightly weaker than they were a season ago for Jags, and significantly down from two years past when they snatched the SBC crown. Gone are champions Thomas Fowlkes (pole vault) and Ezra Bialy (triple jump). Fowlkes will shepard the young pole vault crew, led by Pensacola, Fla.-born Kendrell Bonner. The former Woodham HS standout has the ninth-best vault entering the weekend, just outside of scoring position, where six Arkansas State Indians reside.
Lambert and fellow Davidson (Mobile) product Michael Bagby will have to combine to replace Bialy's points in the horizontal jumps and displace the Blue Raiders, and Indians. MTSU's Carlos Morgan owns the No.1 spot in the long jump, with teammates Walker (second), and JaKeith Hairson (fifth) in scoring position. ASU has the third, fourth, and sixth-best broad jumpers in Shawn Aronson, Yury Prisyagin, and James Jenkins. The triple jump is ruled by Jenkins, with Walker in third.
Bagby has had an outstanding junior year, posting a long jump season best of 6.67m (21' 10.5") to rank 14th in the SBC and an indoor career best of 13.70m (44' 11.25") in the triple jump (14th-SBC). Lambert, at 6.20m (19' 4"), has the 20th-best long jump in the conference.
Just as is the preceding season, this year's women's title should be a closely contested affair. While South Alabama has three potential title-winners, four more teams have at least two top contenders and no less than four project podium finishers each. Western Kentucky has 20 athletes with marks that put them in scoring position, followed by North Texas with 18, and ASU and MTSU tied with 17. The Jags have nine in the top-8 over the 17 events, but have yet to field a team in the 4x400m relay, which they won in 2006, or the DMR, an event that saw the Jags place second at the last Championships.
The Jaguars are strongest in the sprints and field events, depending on several athletes to score in multiple events. The side returns Montgomery, Ala. native Knox, the reigning champion in the high jump, who has added the long jump to her repertoire. With her season's best clearance of 1.73m (5' 8"), the junior is presently second in her title event, behind Amy Fleddermann (1.75m/5' 8.75") of Arkansas State. Knox is ninth in the long jump with a leap of 5.59m (18' 4") and looks to contribute to the 400m leg on the DMR.
Latoria English (Pensacola, Fla.) should step into the graduated Florence Edi's shoes and vie for the pentathlon crown against Fledderman, the top seed in the five-event competition. English was fourth last year as the Sun Belt scored the event for the first time. The former Woodham HS star will also compete in several individual events, including the high jump, where she placed fifth.
Senior Erin Kinnear holds the top mark in the pole vault, by virtue of her indoor best and Jag-record of 3.87m (12' 8.25"). The doctor-to-be's height is three inches above Elizabeth Boyle of Arkansas State, who heads two other Lady Indians in the top-8. Jaguar Emily Sawyer is sixth coming in to the Championships.
Senior Ajoke Odumosu is the top-ranked 400m runner in the conference with an NCAA provisional time of 54.14. She is the reigning champion both indoors and outdoors, and was the runner-up in 2004. The Lagos, Nigeria native is also second in the 200m at 24.64, behind Florida Atlantic's Trishauna Clark (24.56).
Clarisse Moh is second to Odumosu at 400m, but will attempt an unprecedented double at 800m and 200m. Moh, a member of the French junior-national 4x400m relay, is tops at 800m, with an NCAA provisional time of 2:08.92 (school record). With the preliminary-round schedule stacked against an 800m/400m double, like she did in the 2006 outdoor finale, the junior will use her deceptive speed in the middle sprint event.
Along with Moh in the 800m event, the Jags return sophomore Jessica Miller, the reigning indoor and outdoor champion, and junior Cassandra Perkins, seventh at the indoor championships in 2006. Miller, Uruguay's record-holder in both outdoor hurdle events, has been working on her 400m speed this year and so, has only posted the 12th-best time (2:22.57) in the SBC, but she came from nowhere to win as a freshman last year. Perkins will be looking to redeem herself from her performance a season ago. She came into the final after posting the fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries, but fell to back of the pack. This year, the Bellevue West (Neb.) product is third-fastest half-miler at 2:17.70 and will focus solely on this event, after dropping the mile from her program.
