The Men and Women’s Track and Field teams both finished fourth at the Southern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships held at Memorial Center this past weekend.
The Bucs finished with 53 total points behind winner Virginia Military Institute’s first place finish with 146 points.
The Lady Bucs ended up fourth, with 52 points, finishing behind Appalachian State’s 130 points.
Track and Field Coach Matt High was pleased with the individual efforts of some of his athletes, but also thinks some need to improve.
“I think some people showed a lot of heart and some people didn’t step up like they needed to,” he said.
Although both squads were not in contention for the team titles, the Bucs and Lady Bucs had several outstanding individual performances.
On the men’s side, senior Evan Hawkins won the 200-meter dash, in a personal best time of 21.55 seconds, after finishing a disappointing second in the 400-meter dash, his specialty. In the 400 he was outleaned at the tape by Western Carolina’s Derrick High in 47.53, edging Hawkins’ 47.64.
“I was a little disappointed (after the 400),” he said. “But it’s my best time ever on this track (David Walker Track), and he (High) ran a great race.”
Hawkins came back with a vengeance in the 200, winning his first-ever conference championship at that distance. He also ran the anchor leg on the men’s mile relay team, which finished third.
“I never won the 200 before. It made up for losing the four,” Hawkins said. “It’s all about scoring points and contributing to the team.”
The men also got a conference championship from Jason Farr in the high jump.
His jump of 6’9″ gave him his first conference title in two years.
“It feels great (to win), it’s been two years since my last conference win,” Farr said. “I didn’t jump as high as I would have liked, but the most important thing here is winning.”
The Bucs received a bulk of their remaining points in the shot put Friday afternoon where Josh Artau and Chad Hydar finished second and third respectively with throws of 48’11.50″ and 48’8.25″.
“Second and third are good and helpful for the team,” Artau said. “We knew there were points to be had in the throwing events at the conference to help the team.”
Throwing Coach Ed Moore said, “They did a good job, they worked hard and I’m proud of the way they’ve performed.”
The Bucs also received points from Andrew Whitsons’ fifth place finish in the high jump (6’3.25″), Adam Woods’ sixth place in the pole vault (12’11.75″), and Greg Sprowl’s sixth-place finish in the 5000-meter run (15 minutes, 11.4 seconds.
For the women, juniors Roseline Addo and Jennifer Howard repeated their one-two finish in the women’s 400-meter dash from last season’s indoor and outdoor conference championships.
“We wanted to repeat, we didn’t run as fast, but it’s just about placing,” Addo said.
Addo also finished third in the 200-meter dash and came back to join Howard on the Lady Bucs mile relay team that finished first and set a new conference championship record with their time of 3 minutes, 49.11 seconds.
“We’ve never won the relay since my freshman year,” Addo said. “We’ve wanted to win that forever.”
Howard, who also finished sixth in the 200, said, “We wanted to beat Western so bad, we never had a great relay at the conference in the past.”
The Lady Bucs also received strong performances from senior Emily Campbell and junior Lauren Campbell.
Emily Campbell finished third in the 3000-meter run Friday afternoon, in a time of 10 mintutes, 12.96 seconds, which was her highest finish in a conference championship meet.
“Usually the 5000 is my stronger event,” Campbell said. “I haven’t done as much distance, but my speed has been good.”
Lauren Campbell also ran well for the Lady Bucs, finishing second in the 800-meter run in a time of 2 minutes,15.28 seconds.
She finished behind Appalachian State runner Mary Jane Harrelson, who won the 800 and mile runs. Harrelson also ran the anchor leg on Appalachian State’s first place distance medley relay team.
Harrelson’s time of 2.08.4 in the 800 was a conference championship meet record and a NCAA provisional qualifying time.
Harrelson returned to ASU this year after taking last year off to train for the Olympic Trials, in which she finished fifth place in the women’s 1500-meter run and sixth place in the 800-meter run. She is also the 1999 NCAA champion for the 1500.
The women received the rest of their points from Cheryl Howard’s fifth-place finish in the high jump (5’1.75″) and from Kristin Truman’s sixth place finish in the triple jump (36’9″).

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