The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamian connection of Devynne Charlton and Carmiesha Charlton and coaches Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene and Norbert Elliott of the Purdue University Boilermakers celebrated success at the Big Ten Indoor Championships over the weekend in Geneva, Ohio.

Together, the quartet helped Purdue women to post their highest finish at the championships since 2001 as they ended up in a two-way tie for third place at the two-day meet. Charlton led the way, scoring a total of 18 points in three events, and picked up three silver medals. Cox and Charlton are the first Purdue women to score in the 200m dash this century.

“When we talk about continuing our strength with the Golden Girls and the relays, we have two of them right here,” said Greene.

As a result of her performances on the track, Charlton was one of two Boilermakers who have automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships that will be held over the weekend of March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The other is weight thrower Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, who is ranked No.2 collegiately.

“Devynne is a warrior, man,” Greene added. “She ran six races in the 60 metres, the 60m hurdles and the 200m and she said to me, ‘coach if you need me to run the 4 x 400, I’m ready to run’.

“I had to tell her ‘no baby girl, that’s too much.’ I had to literally tell that it was too much. We have enough personnel to handle the job. She ran 8.23 in the preli’s and 8.17 in the final and then come back and ran 23.80 in the 200 and 7.38 in the 60 hurdles. She’s just been breaking records and crushing her PRs. She is a hard worker.”

In the 60m, Charlton broke her own school record with a second place finish time of 7.38 seconds. Charlton then had the 60m hurdles, her best event, where she ran well and finished runner-up with a time of 8.18 seconds, just 0.01 of a second off her own school record. She wrapped her day up with the 200m dash where she finished seventh with a time of 24.47 seconds.

“Devynne, in my mind, has what it takes to go to the next level,” Greene said.

If she continues to progress, Greene anticipates that Charlton could end up running at least 12.8 in the 100m hurdles during the outdoor season.

“The li’l girl got a gift. Honestly, it’s something you can’t coach. It comes from deep within,” Greene said. “That was given to her. She’s special. To others it might be strange, but she is going to run the A standard for the World Championships and she is going to be a factor. She may not make the final, but she is going to be a factor.”

Cox, on the other hand, started her day by taking sixth in the 60m dash with a time of 7.44 seconds to earn three points for Purdue. She concluded her day with the 200m dash where she worked her way onto the podium with a third place finish. Cox ran a time of 23.75 seconds, the second-best true-time of her career.

“Carmiesha is another beast,” Greene pointed out. “I call her Coxy and in my mind, although this is her first indoor season after being injured last year in her freshman season, she is also going to have a great season. We decided to shut her down and just let her go to school and be a student and we will start all over again for outdoors.

“It isn’t that important to keep her running indoors. It’s more important for us to try to win the championship. We need to let her get healthy and be able to compete for us in the long term. But she ran the 60m and the 200m and was a member of our 4 x 400m relay team.”

Greene is expecting Cox to run 23-flat outdoors in the 200 and 11.20 or 11.30 in the 100.

The duo remind assistant coach Elliott of his time as head coach at the University of Georgia when he had both sprinter Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and quarter-miler Tonique Williams on his Bulldogs roster for one season.

“The girls are performing magnificently,” Elliott said. “Between Devynne and Carmiesha, they played a huge role in part to our third place finish. In fact, we really should have gotten second, had it not been for a mix up in the 4 x 4. So, the girls are definitely coming into their own in their sophomore year.

“In fact, Carmiesha is a freshman indoors because she red shirted and Devynne is a sophomore. So this just goes to show you what a year makes under a system. They sort of struggled during their first year in adjusting to life in the US. But we are really proud of them and they are competing very, very well.”

Despite the fact that they re both young, Elliott said they showed that they are seasoned athletes and that comes from the work ethic that they developed under the coaches they trained with in the Bahamas and their performances in the junior meets before they got into college.

“But they also trained very hard during the fall and it’s definitely showing,” Elliott said. “Carmiesha fell short of qualifying for the nationals indoors, but Devynne has shown consistency in running the 60m hurdles. They both had a really tough weekend, but they performed very well.

“I know coach Greene is really proud of them and both of us as national level coaches for the Bahamas are just as proud of their performances so far and we are really looking forward to them taking it to the next level when they start running in the outdoors after the nationals.”