NEW ORLEANS – After improving on his own University of South Alabama track and field record for the second time this season, Rickssen Opont has been named the Sun Belt Conference Men's Indoor Field Athlete of the Week.  The league office made the announcement on Wednesday.

Competing at the Bulldog Invitational hosted by Samford last Friday, the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, native posted a 17.43m mark to win the shot put, bettering the school and Haitian national indoor standards he set at the team's previous meet, the Jaguar Invitational, the first weekend of the month.  Opont added a third-place result in the weight throw, with his mark of 17.46m his longest of the year and the best in the conference last week.

The graduate transfer from St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.) College — who remains atop the league's rankings in the shot put this winter — has set a new school record in the discipline at three straight competitions.

It's the second time this month that Opont has earned the Sun Belt's weekly field accolade.  The Jaguars will begin competing at the conference championship on Monday in Birmingham, Ala.

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