BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men's and women's track and field teams claimed four first-place finishes Friday at the Samford Invitational held at the Birmingham Crossplex.

Christoph Graf and Rafael Scott earned first in the mile run and 60-meter dash, respectively, with each posting career-best marks. Graf recorded a time of 4:06.14, shaving 9.32 seconds off his previous best set at the UAB Vulcan Invite on Jan. 23. Scott clocked a time of 6.80 seconds, .05 seconds faster than his previous best. Both move to fourth on the school's all-time performance list in their events.

Graf's time not only provided his second victory in the event this season, it set a Swiss under-23 national indoor record.

LaMia Miller finished first in the women's shot put, recording a career-best distance of 14.65m — her previous record was 14.26m — to move into second on the school's all-time performance list in the event, and Kaitlyn Beans won the women's triple jump after posting a mark of 12.55m.

The Jaguars had an additional five individuals with top-five finishes in their events. Both the men's team placed eighth overall scoring 45 points while the women's squad was ninth after collecting 29 points. Coastal Carolina claimed the men's division with 76 points, while Western Carolina took the women's division posting 81.23 points.

Ravaughn Pope placed second in the 60-meter hurdles for the second meet in a row with a time of 8.21, .13 seconds behind the leader. Mathew Dillon placed 10th in his preliminary heat with a mark of 8.52, only .06 seconds from competing in the finals.

Laura Labuschaigne placed fifth in the women's mile run with a time of 4:57.64, 2.68 seconds faster than her previous best. The mark moves her to fourth on the school's all-time performance list in the event.

Mark Watts finished in seventh place in the 400-meter dash with a 49.65 clocking, just over a second behind the victor. The men picked up additional 10th-place performances in the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:23.37, a race won by Western Carolina with a time of 3:16.27, the 60-meter dash with a career-best mark of 6.99 by Tony Ray Parnell, and the mile run with a 4:19.90 time by Patrick Rohr.

Joanna McCoy placed eighth in the 3,000-meter run with a career-best time of 10:08.22. The mark was nearly 20 seconds faster than her previous best of 10:27.73 set at the Southern Miss Cupid Classic in February 2014, moving her into sixth on the school's all-time performance list in the event.

In field events, Renaldo Frechou placed fourth in the men's weight throw with a distance of 17.54m, less than a meter short of finishing in the top three. Jan-Louw Kotze was ninth in the event throwing a season-best 15.08m, .76m farther than his previous record, and he also placed fourth in the shot put with a season-high 15.60 mark — that was one meter out of the top spot in the event.

Niel Giliomee recorded a fourth-place result in the men's pole vault with a height of 4.70m, only .65m behind the leader. In the men's long jump, Scott placed ninth jumping a distance of 6.74, with the winner of the event posting a mark of 7.43m.

Robert King, competing in the men's high jump for the first time, took 10th place with a height of 1.85m, less than .30m from first place.

"We had about 20 individuals who recorded lifetime best performances today," explained USA head coach Paul Bruekse.  "It's definitely a good showing as we head into the conference championships at the end of the month.

The Jaguars will be back in action at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championship on Feb. 23-24.

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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