Calhoun alum Wade earns AAC honor after big performance

From college reports BARBOURVILLE, Ky.

— A pair of Union College track & field standouts collected honors from the Appalachian Athletic Conference ( AAC) as Stephen Gray (JR/Louisville, Ky.) and former Calhoun High standout Tamia Wade (SO/Calhoun, Ga.) were named the men’s and women’s Field Athletes of the Week, the league announced Monday.

The duo helped Union to strong showings at the Lindsey Wilson College Invitational over the weekend with the men’s team placing fourth and the women checking in at second overall.

Gray, a junior from Louisville, Ky., put together an impressive first meet of the outdoor season in accounting for 28 of Union’s 90 points. He registered wins in the hammer throw and shot put while placing second in the discus throw. In winning the hammer throw, Gray set a school record with his toss of 43.30 meters (142 feet, 0.5 inches) to beat the old mark by over 11 feet.

In the shot put, Gray’s toss of 13.50 meters was good enough to take the top prize. His throw of 38.94 meters landed Gray second in the discus.

Wade collected points for the Bulldogs in three events, including 10 for winning the high jump. The Calhoun, Ga., cleared a height of 1.52 meters to win the high jump, while covering 10.26 minutes to place fourth in the triple jump. She posted a leap of 5.07 meters in the long jump to land seventh.

The Union track & field teams return to action Saturday at the Centre College Invitational.

In other recent college track and field action:

Wade wins high jump for Union COLUMBIA, Ky.

— The Union College women’s track & field team made a strong statement over the weekend as the Bulldogs set four school records in placing second at the Lindsey Wilson College Invitational.

Union tallied 156 total points to finish 48 behind host and first-place Lindsey Wilson (Ky.). Kentucky Wesleyan took third with 146.5 points with Cumberland (Tenn.) (68 points) and Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) ( 15 points) rounded out the top five of the seven-team field.

Olivia Whatley had a hand in two of the school-record performances. She placed second in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.29. Whatley held the old mark at 1:07.40, which she set at the 2016 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship Meet.

Whatley joined forces with Mykelle Andrews ( SO/Louisville, Ky.), Auji Williams, and Autumn Crump ( JR/Marion, Ark.) for the 4x100 relay for another record-setting performance. The quartet took second place with a time of 49.07 seconds, edging the previous mark by 0.45 seconds.

In the pole vault, Reanna Elswick (SO/Jenkins, Ky.) continues to improve as she upped her school record in the event. Elswick won the pole vault by clearing a height of 3.04 meters (9 feet, 11.68 inches), besting her old mark of 2.70 meters (8 feet, 8.5 inches).

Katie Herdman ( JR/New Carlisle, Ohio) and former Calhoun High standout Tamia Wade ( SO/ Calhoun, Ga.) joined Elswick as the only Bulldogs to post a first-place finish. Herdman won the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 16.16 seconds. Wade won the high jump as she cleared 1.52 meters.

Ta’Leah Adams (FR/Madison, Ga.) finished sixth in the shot put, but she set the school record by nearly three feet. Adams’ best throw went for 11.29 meters (37 feet, 0.5 inches), beating the previous standard at 10.48 meters (34 feet, 4.5 inches).

In other recent college track and field news:

Fightmaster gives Samford a win in high jump BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

The Samford University track and field team turned in a strong performance Friday in the Bulldogs’ first outdoor meet of the 2017 season, which was held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.

The Bulldogs played host to a number of in-state teams Friday, including South Alabama, Troy, UAB and Miles College.

Samford earned a multitude of event titles on both the men’s and women’s sides of the competition.

Emma Garner, the Bulldogs’ talented junior distance runner, notched a championship title in the 800-meter run Friday by posting a strong time of 2:15.71. She nearly topped the nearest competitor by four full seconds in the event.

Next up, in one of the closest races of the afternoon, Samford’s Victoria Wicks outpaced UAB’s Marielle Lewis by two one-hundredths of a second, 1:01.95 to 1:01.97, in the 400-hundred meter hurdles. The Bulldogs’ Lauren Beard also earned a fifthplace finish in the event.

Samford’s women dominated the high jump competition Friday.

The Bulldogs’ Courtney Prengaman cleared a height of 1.70 meters to earn the championship title, while Selena Popp and Carrie Neill took second and third place, respectively. Popp garnered a second-place finish for Samford with a height of 1.65 meters. Neill turned in a mark of 1.60 meters, which was good for third place.

On the men’s side of Friday’s Samford Alabama Track Challenge, the Bulldogs’ Arsene Guillorel turned in one of the most impressive performances of the day as he cruised to a 14-second triumph in the men’s mile. Samford’s uber-talented junior from Pontchateau, France, recorded a dominant time of 4:10.20, while South Ala- bama’s Luke Fielding placed second at 4:24.17.

The Bulldogs’ Josh Salter breezed to the championship title of the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:42.85 on Friday.

Additionally, Samford’s Dillon Deen (9:00.38) placed fourth in the event, while Brad Cheek (9:33.57) turned in a seventh-place performance.

Emmanuel Tait, the Bulldogs’ freshman phenom from Alabaster, won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.72. Tait also placed second in the 100-meter dash with a mark of 10.72.

Samford’s Keyth Fightmaster, a former Calhoun High standout, and Tray Oates registered event titles in the high jump and pole vault, respectively, on Friday. Fightmaster posted a competition-best height of 1.95 meters in the event, while the Bulldogs’ All-American Oates cleared an impressive mark of 5.36 meters.

Javion Lee, Samford’s senior native of Clinton, Mississippi, won the triple jump Friday with a mark of 14.93 meters. Additionally, the Bulldogs’ Jonathan Waarvik, Chris Thrasher and Austin Billings finished first, third and fifth in the javelin throw, respectively.

The Samford University track and field teams will next be in action Wednesday as the Bulldogs send competitors to both the 2017 Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, as well as the Florida Relays being held in Gainesville, Florida.

Ortiz takes fifth in high jump for Shorter ATLANTA

The Lady Hawks scored 100 points over the two-day event to finish second overall at the Emory Classic hosted by Emory University over the weekend.

En route to the total Shorter’s women posted points in eleven different events, and finished with multiple athletes in the top-8 for an event seven times. While, seven athletes also scored in multiple events – including relays.

Leading the way for Shorter was Jasmine Crump; who helped the Lady Hawks to 24 points. Individually, she finished first in the 200m dash, crossing the line in 24.92 sec- onds; while finishing third in the 400m in a time of 57.19 seconds, and fifth in the high jump with a height of 1.60m. She also helped the “A” team finish 3rd in the 4x400m, as she joined Miyah Golden, Promise Clark and Chloe Ways to turn in a time of 3:52.79.

Former Sonoraville High standout Heather Ortiz finished 5th in the pole vault, clearing a height of 3.08m and Yamara Robinson turned in a 5th place finish in the long jump with a leap of 5.38m.

Anelise Aldana tallied 14 points on the weekend for Shorter, turning in a 2nd place finish in Saturday’s triple jump with a leap of 11.84m, after posting a 3rd place finish (5.44m) in the long jump Friday evening.

Aspen McClain also posted points in two individual events, earning a 6th place finish in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.05 seconds, and then in the triple jump with an eighth-place finish for a jump of 10.98m.

The “A” team – Alexis Smith, Kemor Anderson, Bria Dean and Ansley Long - finished second in the 4x100m in a time of 47.44. While, Smith also posted a fourth-place finish in the 200m with a time of 25.37 seconds. Long and Dean each placed in the long jump, finishing first (5.54m) and fourth (5.44m), respectively.

The “B” team – Remel Williams, Cheyenne Easley, Tyra Williams and Jasmine Radford – turned in a fourth-place finish in the 4x100m with a time of 48.59. Easley also scored in an individual event, finishing sixth in the 100 with a time of 12.26 seconds.

While, in the 4x400m the “B” team of Anderson, Amber Littlejohn, Portia McManis and Tanzanie Brown tallied at fourth place finish when they crossed the line in 3:59.69.

McManis added a 2nd place finish in the 100m hurdles to her resume with a time of 14.74, while Brown tallied a 5th place finish (1.60m) in the high jump.

The Lady Hawks will be back in action next weekend at the annual Florida Relays hosted by the University of Florida and Pepsi in Gainesville, Florida.