STARKVILLE, Miss. – The University of South Alabama men's and women's track and field teams earned seven individual victories in field events at the Jace LaCoste Invitational hosted by Mississippi State Saturday to highlight the program's performance in its final meet of the regular season.

Michaela Preachuk claimed the women's hammer throw with a 55.55m mark, with LaMia Miller fifth in the event after recording a toss of 55.20m.  In the men's hammer throw, Renaldo Frechou earned victory following a 62.51m effort, with Jan-Louw Kotze third and Andrew Allen placing fourth with marks of 57.04m and 54.77m, respectively; it was a career-long throw for the latter.

Matt Weinhold picked up the win in the men's shot put by just .1m, as his career-best throw of 15.98m moved the sophomore into fifth on the program's all-time performance list.  Weinhold added a career-best mark of 50.77m in the discus as well, coming in sixth place one spot behind Jobi Finau, who also recorded a personal record after a throw of 51.41m that moved him into fifth on the same list.

Barbara Rivera was the winner of the women's javelin — her mark of 43.73m was nearly three meters better than the runner-up — with Jessica Matthews using a career-long 40.69m effort to come in third place.

Kaitlyn Beans claimed the women's triple jump with a mark of 12.77m, and the junior placed fourth in the long jump with a 5.77m effort as well; both were her best leaps of the year.

Kayla Carlile cleared a career-high 3.91m to win the women's pole vault while Sean Collins posted a 5.26m mark to pick up the victory in the men's event.  Jordan Friz, Megan James and Ireland Armstrong were all among the top five after the trio each posted a 3.81m mark in the women's discipline, with Ty Holenbeck and Niel Giliomee accomplishing the same for the men with jumps of 4.90m.  It was the best mark of Holenbeck's career.

Kriszti Szabo moved into third place on the all-time performance list at USA with a 12.60m mark in the women's triple jump — she was also among the top 10 in the long jump — while Taylor Dames had a career-best 1.70m leap in the women's high jump to come in third place in the event and Miller was fifth in the women's shot put, posting a 13.87m mark.  Phoebe Dowson's 48.77m toss in the women's discus was her best of the year, resulting in a third-place finish.

Nate Riech and Ben Rolader crossed the line fourth and sixth, respectively in the men's 1,500 meters while recording their best times of the season; Reich finished in 3:55.15 with Rolader .82 seconds behind.  Ravaughn Pope and Matthew Dillon gave the Jaguars a pair in the top five of the men's 110-meter hurdles as well, with the former posting a 14.39 second mark .03 seconds ahead of the latter.  In the men's 100-meter dash Rafael Scott recorded a fourth-place result with a time of 10.46 seconds, only .12 seconds behind the event winner.

Larry Lombard finished the men's 400-meter hurdles in a career-best 53.07 seconds, ending up in sixth place in the race, while Tasha Russell had a time of 14.26 seconds for a top-10 finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles, her best mark of the season.

Robert King and Lane Adams posted throws of 58.93m and 56.97m to end up in eighth and ninth place, respectively, in the men's javelin.

The Jags will begin postseason competition when events get underway at the Sun Belt Conference Championship on Friday, May 13.

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).

—USA—