by Benny Benton
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In the Barton College track teams' final tuneup on Sunday before the upcoming Conference Carolinas Indoor Championships, men's sprinter Semaj Street proved himself ready.
The junior from Fayetteville, N.C., lowered his NCAA provisional time and broke his own school record once more in the 60-meter dash by racing to a time of 6.86 seconds in the preliminary round at the Kent Taylor Invitational, hosted by the University of North Carolina.
The mark placed Street fourth in a field of 32, and helped him become the only NCAA Division II runner to make the finals, where he came in seventh. Street's 60 time left him tied for 30th nationally this year among Division II runners.
He also competed in the 200-meter dash, placing third out of 27 with a mark of 22.54 seconds. Finishing 12th in the same race was teammate Collin Wilks, who set a personal record (PR) with a time of 23.63 seconds. Wilks, a sophomore from Rosharon, Texas, also posted an indoor PR in the 400 (52.38 seconds) while finishing 11th of 17. Sophomore Aaron Jones joined Wilks in setting an indoor PR in the 400 with his time of 50.69 seconds, which was good for seventh place.
Two other Barton men improved upon existing indoor PRs, Joel Lagat in the 800-meter run (2:01.34) and Juan Zetina in the shot put (8.28 meters).
Although not a PR, senior Lashley Winter did record his best finish of the season in the mile, a mark of 4:45.09 that ranked eighth in a field of 20.
Freshman Nihgel Scott's raw time of 50.46 in the 400 was seven one-hundredths of a second off his previous best, but because of the track dimensions will be converted for NCAA comparison purposes. His mark converts to a 49.67 that stands as the best in Conference Carolinas this year.
BC's standout freshman jumper, Lawrence Russell Jr., added his name to the Barton record book in a third event on Sunday, this time by matching the BC indoor standard in the high jump with an effort of 1.78 meters. He tied the mark set by Angel Alvarez a year ago.
Russell also competed in the long jump and triple jump. While his marks on Sunday were nowhere near his school records in those events, he did place first among seven competitors in the triple jump (13.54 meters) and second among nine participants in the long jump (6.83 meters).
Two Barton women set PRs at the UNC meet. Devin Heath produced her best collegiate run in the 400 with a time of 1:05.37, and Judith Melly improved upon her top 3000-meter effort for the second straight week with a mark of 12:14.20.
BC's distance medley quartet of Jayvona McDaniel, Heather Cuddington, Melly and Tameeka Williford missed the school record in that event by just four-tenths of a second following a run of 13:58.96.
The conference meet will take place next Sunday at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.
