The Buccaneer track and field teams competed in the Southern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships this past weekend at VMI with the men’s squad finishing fifth and the women sixth.
The Buccaneer men finished the three-day meet with 79 total points with Appalachian State University winning the men’s crown with 221 points.
The women totaled 58 points over the three-day span with Western Carolina’s women winning the team title with 230.5 points.
Both squads had several tremendous individual performances as the Bucs came away with three individual conference champions and one conference relay title.
On the men’s side, the Bucs received victories from sophomore Andrew Whitson in the decathlon and senior Jason Farr in the high jump.
Farr defended his indoor conference championship with a jump of 6 feet 5.5 inches, defeating Appalachian State’s Ken Millender, who also jumped 6’5.5″.
“It feels great to win, but I was disappointed with how high I jumped,” Farr said. “It rained all day, so there was no traction, but in the conference meet the goal is to win.”
Farr was also the outdoor conference champion in the high jump in 1999.
Whitson defended his decathlon championship from a year ago, scoring 6,233 points over the grueling two-day event.
Whitson, fresh off a school- record performance at the Sea Ray Relays, did not score as high as he did last year when he totaled 6,287 points for a conference meet record, but his total was enough to defeat Appalachian State’s Chad Michael who totaled 5,795 points. Junior Josh Artau also came up big for the Bucs, scoring a total of 15 points.
Artau finished second in the shot put with a throw of 48’1.25″, third in the javelin throw (172’5″), and eighth in the discus throw (129′).
Also tripling for the Bucs was senior Evan Hawkins, who competed in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes and contributed a total of 17 points for the Buccaneer men.
Hawkins repeated his second place performance from the indoor championships in the 400-meter dash, running 47.56 seconds and finishing just two- hundredths of a second behind first-place finisher Derrick High (47.54) of Western Carolina.
Hawkins also placed second in the 200-meter dash, running 21.60 seconds and finishing behind the Citadel’s Jeff Witherspoon who ran 21.44 seconds. Hawkins competed the sprint triple and finished eighth in the 100-meter dash (12.07).
The Buccaneer men also received points from Adam Woods, who placed fourth in the decathlon and sixth in the pole vault (13’10.5″); Mike May, fifth in the 400-meter dash (49.56) and seventh in the 200-meter dash (22.54); Tim De Laughter, sixth in the high jump (6’01.5″); Jeremy Snoderly, eighth in the high jump (5’11.5″); David Cabbler, sixth in the triple jump (45’1.75″); David Haefner, seventh in the 3000-meter steeplechase (9 minutes and 37.60 seconds); and Greg Sprowl, seventh in the 10,000-meter run (32:07.94).
On the women’s side, the Lady Bucs defended their 4-x-400-meter relay title from the indoor championships with a time of 3:48.26.
“We were definitely psyched up for the 4×400,” Jennifer Howard said. “We wanted to defend our indoor title and it’s always nice to beat Western (who had beaten the Bucs several times over the years).”
Junior Roseline Addo was the Bucs lone individual conference champion on the women’s side as she won her fourth consecutive conference 400-meter dash title with a time of 55.19 seconds.
Addo’s teammate Jennifer Howard was right behind her as always and finished second in a time of 55.43 seconds.
Addo and Howard went one-two in the 400-meter dash at the conference championships for the fourth consecutive time.
“It felt really good going one-two again,” Howard said. “We’ve developed a good friendly rivalry and that was our goal going into the race.”
The duo also competed in the 200-meter dash, this time with Howard finishing ahead of Addo, placing fourth in 24.96 seconds to Addo’s fifth-place finish in 25.21 seconds.
“Going into the 200 I was pretty tired,” said Howard, who set a PR (personal record) in the preliminary heats on Friday with a time of 24.61 seconds. “But I’m happy with the way I ran.”
Junior Lauren Campbell also had a big day for the Lady Bucs placing second in the 1,500-meter run (4:39.10) and fifth in the 800-meter run (2:19.45).
In both races, Campbell finished behind Appalachian State’s Mary Jayne Harrelson, who won the 800 (2:10.24), 1,500 (4:33.58) and 3,000-meter (9:35.92) runs.
Harrleson, who placed fifth in the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials in the 1,500-meter run and sixth in 800-meter run, was the 1999 NCAA Women’s 1,500-meter Champion.
The Lady Bucs received the rest of their points from Cheryl Howard, fifth in the high jump (5’3.75″) and eighth in the triple jump (34’11”); Kristin Truman, seventh in the triple jump (35’11.5″); and Emily Campbell, seventh in the 3,000-meter run (10:33.63).

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