Rock Hill, S.C. --- After three days of competition on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Clark Atlanta University's women's track and field team finished third in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Championships, while the men finished the event on a strong note on Saturday, finishing in seventh.
The conclusion of day one at the tournament saw the Lady Panthers leading the pack, however Friday saw them slip a little bit as they entered into the final day in third place. Some strong performances in the morning field events kept the women's squad in contention for the lead, but CAU had to keep an eye over their shoulders as SIAC foe Claflin University was charging hard to take a place on the final podium.
Going into the final event of the meet, the Lady Panthers held a slight lead over Claflin, and needed only to finish ahead of them in the 4x400m relay race. After the combination of Jerriyuana Jarboe, Cynthia Smith and D'Yanna McCaskill ran their legs of the race, they saw themselves in second place to the Claflin team who had seemed to open up an insurmountable lead. However, with Breanna Hopkins carrying the baton on the final lap, the lead started to dwindle down the back stretch. Coming around the final turn, Hopkins was able to take the lead and sprint to the victory as Clark Atlanta claimed third place overall.
In the process of winning the event, the 4x400m team broke a school record that had stood for 18 years, previously held by Kyrah Webb, Nikki Prad, Shonta Alexander and Shelly Parker at the 1997 SIAC championships.
In addition to the women's 4x400 event, the Lady Panthers had strong performances in the 400m Dash (Jarboe, 3rd place), 10k Run (Curshonne Johnson, 2nd, Charisma Clerk, 3rd), 400m Hurdles (McCaskill, 2nd), Long Jump (Jazmine Bowser, 2nd), Triple Jump (Bowser, 2nd), Shot Put (Shahara Mitchell, 2nd), Hammer Throw (Krystal Bobo, 2nd), Javelin Throw (Tabia Wade, 3rd), and the Heptathlon (Wade, 1st), her third straight SIAC championship in that event.
The men's squad, while they certainly would have liked to finish better overall, put in arguably their best performance of the season as they finished in seventh place in the season-ending event. Having only two seniors on their squad, the team will certainly be back next year stronger than ever in the hopes to bring home the hardware.
Outstanding performances were turned in by Tracy Ham (4th - 1500m Run), Kilan Pace (1st - 400m Hurdles, 3rd - Long Jump), and Collin Smith (5th - Javellin, 3rd -Decathlon). Smith won three events in the decathlon, and had four top-three finishes.
Overall the men's and women's teams performed admirably at the end-of-season championships. The focus for the teams will now focus to those individuals who qualified for nationals, which will be released in the coming days.
For more information, please log on to clarkatlantasports.com.
