by Benny Benton
ETTRICK, Va. – Barton College sophomore Micah Clemons won both the men's shot put and discus events this weekend at the VSU Trojan Invite, and junior Larry Russell took first place in the men's long jump while posting a national top-10 mark.
Clemons, a Greenville, N.C., resident, led a field of 14 in the shot put with a season-best toss of 14.56 meters (47 feet, 9 1/4 inches), and topped a field of eight in the discus with a throw of 42.08 meters (138 feet, 1 inch).
Russell claimed the long jump with a leap of 7.44 meters (24 feet, 5 inches), which earned an NCAA provisional mark while landing him eighth on the NCAA Division II national qualifying list.
Barton also finished first in both the men's pole vault (Justin Alford) and women's pole vault (Alayna Moore) while competing against extremely limited fields, and recorded nine other top-five finishes in the meet hosted by Virginia State University.
Russell and Clemons both contributed to those top-fives. Russell placed second in the 110-meter high hurdles with a personal record time of 15.26 seconds and fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 14.16 meters, his best this season not wind-aided. Clemons came in fifth in the javelin.
The men's team also received top-fives from Joel Lagat in the 800-meter run (2nd), Qasim Ray in the 400-meter hurdles (4th) and Chianti Ghee in the discus (4th).
Posting top-five finishes on the women's side were Jasmine Watson in the 100-meter hurdles (2nd), Sharon Kiptoo in the 1500-meter run (4th), and Janae Cunningham in the javelin (5th).
Joining Russell in setting PR marks for the men were Brian Creasey in the shot put (8.32 meters), Leslie Jones in the 1500-meter run (4:31.28), Evan Lee in the 800-meter run (2:01.04), Nicholas Leek in the 1500-meter run (4:22.84) and Avery Smith in the javelin (33.45 meters).
The women earned five PRs – Meghan Araldi in the 1500-meter run (5:17.04), Taylor Everly in the 100-meter dash (14.41 seconds), Andrea Mills in the 100-meter dash (13.65 seconds), Trinity Wells in the shot put (11.04 meters) and Watson in the 200-meter dash (26.52 seconds).
The meet served as the final tune-up for the Conference Carolina Championship, which will take place on Friday and Saturday at Southern Wesleyan University in Central, S.C.
