Houston, TX. - - In what amounted to a final tune-up before facing the prime stretch of their indoor season, the Texas Southern men's and women's track teams competed at the RunSport All-Comers Meet, Saturday, February 2 on the campus of the University of Houston. Both teams came away with stellar individual performances.
The TSU men were led by Shawn Jenkins, a sophomore from Dickinson Texas, who finished fifth overall in the 60-meter hurdles and sixth overall the 200 meter dash. On the women's side, distance specialist Noeleene Harris won her 800 meters heat with a time of 2:27:62; good enough for 16th place overall.
"I think we had an impressive showing today ", Assistant Track and Field Coach Clyde Duncan, Jr. said. "Noeleene and Shawn Jenkins both won their individual heats and I think they will continue to build on that success throughout the rest of this season. Shawn looks like he will be one of the top hurdlers in the conference this year."
The day-long meet, held at the University of Houston's Athletic & Alumni Center, was open to participants of all skill levels and attracted some of the top professional, collegiate and high school track athletes in the region. The event's "all-comer" format also gave TSU coaches a chance to evaluate their redshirt talent for next season, and afforded several Tiger athletes the chance to race in unfamiliar events.
"We had a few people who didn't run in their main events today," Duncan said, "But they still did very well."
One of those moonlighters was All-SWAC junior Chris Lloyd, the Tiger's top 400 meters man. Despite finding himself in the 200 meters event for this meet, and up against several top professional speedsters, Lloyd still took third place overall with a time of 22.06.
In other action, Brandon Garner (49:80) and Edward Brown (50:02) came in second and third respectfully in the men's 400 meter dash. In the men's long jump, Stephen Vaughn finished fifth overall with a distance of 7.10 meters. In the men's 60 meter dash, Chris Phillips came in 13th place with a time of 6:99.
For the TSU women, Annikea Daley finished 25th overall in the high jump with a height of 1.47 meters and Noeleene Harris finished 16th in the mile run with a time of 5:27:40. In the women's long jump event, Melaine Carter finished in 10th place with a distance of 5.43 meters. Coming in 24th place in the women's long jump was Anasthasia Jones with a jump of 5.18 meters, and Tiffany Adams finished in 37th overall with a jump of 4.84 meters.
Next up for the "Flying Tigers" will be a return visit to the University of Houston on February 9 for the Southwest Indoor Classic. The following week they will travel down Baton Rouge, LA for the LSU Invitational on February 15, before returning back to Baton Rogue on February 23-24 for the all-important SWAC Indoor Championships.
