Jennifer Howard and Charvin Clark came away with individual titles in the 400-meter dash and long jump, respectively, at the Southern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships held last weekend at the Liberty Bell Track.Howard and Clark helped the ETSU men’s and women’s track and field teams finish fifth overall. The men scored 63 points, finishing behind Appalachian State, which won the men’s title with 224 points.

The ETSU women scored 79 points as Appalachian State also won on the women’s side with 216 points. Of the Lady Bucs’ 79 points, Howard was ETSU’s top scorer in the meet with 18.75 individual points.

The senior from Knoxville, who also was the SoCon indoor champion at 400m, won her first individual SoCon outdoor championship in a school-record time of 55.01 seconds, taking almost one second off her previous season best of 55.99, which she set in Friday’s preliminaries of the 400m.

Howard also finished fourth in the 200m (25.15) and ran legs on the Lady Bucs’ 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams, finishing fourth and first, respectively.

Howard teamed with Tiffany Collier, Natasha Peyton and Kim Simmons in the 4×400 to set a conference record with their time of 3 minutes 48.17 seconds.

Simmons and Collier also competed in the 400m, finishing second and fifth respectively. Simmons, who also finished sixth in the long jump (18 feet 3 inches), ran a season-best time of 55.94 seconds, while Collier ran 57.76.

The Lady Bucs also received several other top-3 performances, including runner-up finishes by sophomores Emily Chaney and Cheryl Howard in the 3000-meter steeplechase and high jump, respectively.

Chaney finished in 11:52.51 for her second-place effort, but also competed in the 5000 (19:18.38) and 10,000m (40:31.06), finishing seventh and fourth, respectively, to score a total of 15 points for ETSU.

Cheryl Howard’s jump of 5’06” was a season-best jump, earning her second place and eight points for the team.

Senior Lauren Campbell finished out her career with a third-place finish for the Lady Bucs in the 1500m with her season-best time of 4:45.93.

Sophomore Kristin Truman also contributed to the team score, with her fourth-place finish in the javelin throw (101’08”).

On the men’s side Clark, who also won the SoCon indoor title in the long jump, picked up the Bucs’ lone victory of the meet with his jump of 23’11.5″ which won him event the on Friday afternoon.

The men also had several top-3 finishes including runner-up places by freshman James Grufferty in the 10,000m and sophomore David Haefner in the 3000m steeplechase.

Grufferty finished the 25-lap event in 32:32.36, finishing behind the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Curtis Gadula (32:25.56). Grufferty also finished third in the 5000m with his time of 15:14.72, finishing behind Chattanooga’s Gadula (15:13.07) and Steven Kocsis (15:10.51).

Haefner’s second place performance came Friday evening. The sophomore from Buffalo, N.Y., led most of the way through windy conditions and finished in a time of 9:30.61. Bret Burns of Chattanooga finished first in 9:23.87.

Also recording a top-3 finish for the Bucs was freshman Brad Yewer in the 1500m. Yewer took the lead with two laps remaining, stretching out the field, but was unable to hold off Davidson’s Dan Gibson, who won in 3:54.44, and Western Carolina’s Caleb Bailey, who finished second in 3:55.75.

Yewer finished in 3:56.58 and came into the event ranked third behind Gibson (first) and Bailey (second), respectively.

ETSU received third and fourth place finishes in the shot put by Chad Hyder and Josh Artau. Hyder’s throw of 48’00” earned him third place, while Artau finished fourth with a throw of 47’09.75″. Artau, who has been battling a back injury all season, also finished third in the javelin throw (180’01”).

The top-3 finishers in each event earned All-SoCon honors.

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