MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams combined to record 16 collegiate titles and a number of personal-bests on Saturday at the 2012 inaugural Jaguar Invitational, the first of two home meets USA will host this season.
 
Heavy showers threatened the meet early Saturday morning, but the clouds broke just in time to see the Jags display early dominance in the opening event - the men’s hammer throw - in which USA took three of the top four positions.
 
Joey Torres won the event for South Alabama’s first title of the day on a 56.47m effort from the circle to lead Steven Nobles (2^nd, 55.99m) and Adam Patterson (4^th, 53.27m).
 
Torres later won the discus throw (52.90m), leading runner-up Demetre Baker (50.88m), who would later win the shot put on a 16.39m heave to finish ahead of Patterson (3^rd, 14.52m).
 
Alex Shields won the men’s 3,000 meters to lead a group of seven top-ten Jaguar finishers beginning with Derek Westbrook (2^nd, 8:42.94), Robert Mann (3^rd, 8:50.42), Ronny Wilson (4^th, 8:51.37), Justin Housley (5^th, 9:00.76), Ian Bordelon (7^th, 9:15. 58) and Brandon Troub (9^th, 9:18.40).
 
Tori Lawson recorded wins in both the women’s 800- and 3,000-meter runs in times of 2:17.42 and 10:22.52, respectively. Finishing behind Lawson in the 800 were Kendra Lowe (2^nd, 2:20.48) and Mary Finn (4^th, 2:23.83). Shannen Weyer took second in the 3,000 in a time of 10:34.96 and Kristin Parry placed third in 10:53.91.
 
Leah Hixon recorded two PRs in a high jump win (1.64m) and a fifth-place finish in the javelin throw (40.35m). Johnnie Borries tied for sixth in the high jump (1.54m), while also taking second in the javelin (42.44m) and shot put (12.96m) and eighth in her first 200-meter dash appearance for USA (27.23). Lacy Barger took third and Angela McCord followed at fourth in the javelin on respective marks of 41.53m and 41.34m.
 
Latifah Johnson won the hammer throw on a mark of 58.80m and took third in the shot put (12.75m). Bobbie Williamson won the shot put with a 13.82m toss, finished runner-up in the hammer throw (52.32m) and took fourth in the discus (41.94m).
 
Stephen Calogrides threw for 61.54m to win the men’s javelin throw, with Glen Odom finishing a spot behind on a 60.88m measure.
 
Tevin Barnett used a last-second boost of acceleration to outpace fellow-freshman Spencer Anderson in the men’s 400-meter hurdles in a photo finish where Barnett won by only 0.13 seconds. Freshman Taylor Krause cleared 4.56m in the men’s pole vault to record another freshman finish, leading runner-up Connor Smith (4.41m). Mikel Magnusson, Ashton Krause and William Henley all tied for sixth on marks of 4.26m. Smith, Krause and Garrett Schumacher also all tied for fourth in the men’s high jump at a 1.90m height.
 
Melissa McCluskey won the women’s 400-meter dash in a personal-best time of 58.10 seconds and took fifth in the 200 meters (25.47s). McCluskey also ran as part of the winning women’s 4x100-meter relay team (47.85s) along with Erikka Williams, Erika Saxton and Shayna McCarver.
 
Saxton tied for first in the women’s triple jump on a mark of 11.80m - one one-hundredth of a meter short of her personal record – and finished fourth in the 100 meters in a time of 12.25 seconds, one place ahead of Lindsay Schwartz, who crossed the line in 12.32 seconds. McCarver finished fourth in the long jump on a personal-best 5.23m.
 
Corey Cotter finished runner up in the men’s 800 meters (1:59.19), Tyler Agee took fifth in the 100-meter dash (11.27) and Daniels Duhe finished seventh in the 400 meters (51.03) to round out Jaguar performances on Saturday.
 
Full meet results can be found here. 
 
The Jags will travel to Auburn next weekend for the Tiger Classic before returning home to host the USA Invitational on April 13-14. 
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).