Final Michael Johnson results
WACO – ACU senior
Desmond Jackson posted one of the best days by a Wildcat sprinter in recent memory Saturday, blistering the Hart-Patterson Track and Field Complex in three races at the Michael Johnson-Dr Pepper Classic.
Jackson finished second in both the 100 and 20 meters and helped ACU to a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 relay. But it wasn't the finishes, rather the times posted by Jackson and his teammates that made his day a memorable one.
In the 100 meters, Jackson – running a field of NCAA Division I sprinters – finished second in 10.22 seconds, which is tied for the fifth-fastest fully automatic time in ACU history.
A bit later in the day, Jackson turned in a second-place finish in the 200 meters, clocking in at 20.79 with a legal wind of 0.5 mph. Jackson concluded his day by running the second leg on a 4x100 relay team that finished fourth behind Texas A&M (38.96), Texas (39.45) and TCU (39.50).
With Jackson running the second leg, the Wildcats finished at 39.80, the Wildcats' fastest time since 2006 (39.79). Joining Jackson on the relay were
Andrew McDowell, Lavance Williams and Paris Robertson, and they now own the fastest NCAA Division II time in the nation after Saturday's performance.
Senior distance man
Amos Sang also posted a provisional qualifying time in the 5000 meters with a second-place finish in 3:50.33.
The Wildcats made their presence felt in the field events as well as they won two events (
Ramon Sparks in the triple jump and
Nick Jones in the discus) and finished second in four others (Jones in the shot put, Timothy Jones in the triple jump and
Tyler Fleet in the hammer throw).
Sparks – already with the nation's top mark of 52-10.75 – went 52-5.25 on Saturday to win the event. Jones topped his previous best by more than three feet as he went from 48-6.0 at the UTEP Springtime Inv. earlier this season to a jump of 51-0.25 on Saturday at Baylor, good enough to make him a solid provisional qualifier for next month's NCAA Division II outdoor championship meet in Turlock, Calif.
Neither Jones' shot put mark (58-8.75) nor his discus mark (188-6) were better marks than at previous meets, and neither was Fleet's second-place finish in the hammer.
The women weren't quite as dominating as the men, but were solid nonetheless. Amanda Ouedraogo finished second in the triple jump at 42-5.50, which is a new personal best.
All of the improvements came in the field events where Tara Riley finished 16th in the shot put with an improved provisional mark of 39-11.50.
Jessica Sloss won the hammer throw with a mark of 160-4.
