AUSTIN -- Discus throwers
Nick Jones and
Paige Newby, the national leaders in men's and women's discus throws in NCAA Division II this season, shared the spotlight for the ACU Wildcats Friday on the third day of the 84th annual Texas Relays at Myers Stadium.
Jones, two-time NCAA Division II champion, placed fifth among collegiate throwers in the university-college men's discus throw section A. The best throw of his series was 187-2 in the second round when he ranked third here, but he failed to improve in the final rounds in a competition won by BYU's Leif Arrhenius at 199-4.
Jones series was 179-6, 187-2 and 183-8 in the prelims and 171-0 and 184-2 in the finals before ending with a foul. He's the NCAA Division II national leader this season at 195-4.
Newby, also NCAA Division II reigning discus champion and the current national leader, finished third in the university-college women's discus section B at 157-3. She was seventh entering the finals after a prelim series of 142-4, 143-6 and foul, but she responded with 152-7, 157-3 and 156-3 in the finals to climb to third in an event won by Texas Tech's Kelly Closse at 171-1.
ACU had two competitors in each of the discus events for throws coach
Jerrod Cook. Jones' teammate,
Tyler Fleet, who Thursday became only the fourth Wildcat ever to reach 60 meters in the hammer throw, advanced to the finals and threw the discus 173-10 for ninth among collegiate throwers in section A. Newby's teammate,
Jessica Sloss, was 13th in the discus section B at 135-1.
In the women's triple jump, ACU newcomer Amanda Ouedraogo, runner-up at the recent NCAA Division II indoor meet, was fifth in the women's university-college triple jump section B with a windy 41-4.25. She is also the NCAA Division II outdoor leader this season.
In the only running event final for ACU on Friday, the men's college sprint medley relay, the Wildcats ran 3:33.80 for seventh, well back of the winner, JC champion South Plains College, in 3:18.14. ACU's 1995 team anchored by Savieri Ngidhi owns the meet record here at 3:12.30 -- just off the collegiate record of 3:12.13.
In qualifying events Friday, another Wildcat newcomer, Paris Robertson, transfer from Starkville, Miss., ran a windy 10.50 to advance to Saturday's final in the men's college 100. A former Mississippi Class 3A 100-meter champion, he was fourth in the third of three heats.
Ramon Sparks, three-time NCAA Division II champion in the triple jump, placed 11th among collegiate performers in the university-college men's long jump section A with a wind-aided mark of 23-5.5.
Two Wildcat hurdlers expected to contend for the front in the college men's 110 hurdles,
Andrew McDowell and
Kevin Johnson, were scheduled to compete in qualifying heats here Friday, but the heats were cancelled, and the remaining hurdlers were advanced to Saturday's final. McDowell is the NCAA Division II leader at 14.16.
Failing to advance for the Wildcats after competing in preliminaries Friday were the women's 400 relay team (48.97),
Cassie Brooks (14.66w) and Shelby Young (15.04w) in the women's 100 hurdles, and
Sydney Smith (12.00w) in the women's 100.
Other ACU entries Saturday include Sparks in the triple jump section A, Jones in the shot put section A, and
Amos Sang in the annual Jerry Thompson mile. Sang was 2010 NCAA Division II champion at 5,000 and 10,000 and recently won the NCAA Division II indoor 5,000 to pace coach Roosevelt Lofton's squad to the team title.
