HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The University of South Alabama track and field teams earned numerous top-five finishes in field events this weekend at the Southern Miss Invitational held at the Marshall Bell Track Complex. 

In men's competition, USA individuals claimed the first five positions in the hammer throw: Renaldo Frechou won the event with a mark of 66.36m followed by Jan-Louw Kotze in second with a career-best mark of 60.65m, which moved him into third on the school's all-time performance list for the event. Freshmen Ethan Boyd (51.98m) and Thomas Boyd (51.59m) — competing unattached — earned third and fourth respectively, while Andrew Allen finished fifth recording a distance of 51.07m. 

"Zach Blahnik, who currently has the second-best throw on the team, didn't compete due to a minor strain," said USA head coach Paul Brueske. "But those performances show the quality and depth that we have. It shows that we have good people that are upperclassmen and good people that are underclassmen; we should be strong and competitive in the future."

Allen placed fourth in the javelin throw with a season-best 56.61m, moving him into eighth on the school's all-time performance list for the event, while teammate Charles Collins finished fifth with a mark of 52.59m.

Berron Tyson finished third in the triple jump with a season-best 13.73m mark, while Lezyon Legarde came in fourth in the long jump with a measurement of 6.15m; fellow Jag Cameron Stokes placed seventh jumping 6.01m.

For the women, Barbara Rivera (46.68m), Jessica Matthews (38.85m) and Ashton Pennington (38.64m) placed first, second and third, respectively, in the javelin throw, with Rivera and Matthews posting season-best distances. 

LaMia Miller finished second in the hammer throw with a distance of 50.39m, followed by Morgan Jones (49.31m) and Megan Hall (48.92m) in third and fourth places, respectively — the performance a season-best for Hall, surpassing her previous best throw of 48.15m.

Rounding out the top-five in the triple jump, Ariel Johnson finished fourth with a distance of 11.30m followed by Erikka Williams in fifth with 10.70m; while in the high jump, Jasmine Ferguson earned fourth with a height of 1.60m, just .15m behind the victor. 

Ireland Armstrong and Kayla Carlile both recorded a mark of 3.65m in the women's pole vault — a season-best performance by the latter — finishing third and fifth, respectively.

"Our women's team is really young," commented Brueske. "We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. I think we have shown improvement so far during the outdoor season. We've got some talented kids; they just have to keep getting better and improving. I think if we can do that then the women's team is going to develop and get to where they need to be."

Despite a strong start in the competition, the teams ended competition and headed home early due to the threat of severe weather.

"We had some good performances early on," said Brueske, "but unfortunately severe weather moved into Hattiesburg and the conditions were not favorable for good performances. At a certain point we pulled some kids out since it is so close to the [Sun Belt] conference championship; we didn't want to risk injury with the conditions."

The Jaguars will begin postseason action at the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala., May 8-10.

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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