The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DEVYNNE Charlton clearly remembers the growing pains she endured as a freshman on the collegiate scene. Now, in her sophomore year, the sprinter/hurdler has emerged as one of the top performers for the Purdue University Boilermakers women’s track and field programme.

At the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Michigan, to highlight a big weekend for Bahamian collegiate athletes around the United States, Charlton helped the Boilermakers to a sixth place finish in the women’s division after she anchored their 4 x 100 metre relay team, featuring Bahamian Carmiesha Cox on third, to victory in 44.65 seconds for the second fastest time in Purdue’s school history.

Charlton had three fantastic showings in the individual events as she tied her Bahamian record of 13.06 seconds in the 100m hurdles as she ended up second behind Michigan’s Cindy Ofili, the winner in 12.89. Charlton came back and posted a time of 11.37 to lower her own Purdue record by 0.12 of a second.

In both events, Charlton just missed the World’s quaifying times of 13.00 and 11.33 in the 100m hurdles and 100 respectively.

“Devynne is a warrior,” said Bahamian head coach Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene. “On her third race, to win that race, she is a warrior. Then she walks off like it wasn’t any big deal. If you would have asked her to run in the 4 x 400m relay, she would have done it and done it well. She was great today.”

Charlton said she was quite pleased with her performances, but she placed a lot of emphasis on the Boilermakers as a team.

“We didn’t achieve the team goal that we wanted to, but we did pretty good under the circumstances,” she told The Tribune. “In the relays, we went in as the underdogs. Everybody had Ohio State to win, but we knew that if we executed right, we could have won it and although we had some problems on the exchanges, we still managed to pull it off.

“In the hurdles, I just tried to get a good start because I knew the girl from Michigan was a good finisher and she would be right there at the tape, so I tried to get out to the best of I can. I managed to hold on for second. In the 100m, the finish wasn’t the best part of my race, but I was able to hold on for the win.”

With a little more adjustments in training, Charlton said she hopes to step it up at the upcoming Regional Championships next weekend and eventually the NCAA Championships that will follow in June, a vast improvement from her freshman year.

“Last year I didn’t make the final in either event and in the relay we were sixth so from a year ago to now and running as fast as I am right now, it’s a major turn around for me,” Charlton said. “I feel like last year, I had to make a huge adjustment to the weather, the workload in practice, the workload in the classroom and after making the adjustment, I was able to focus on my school work, doing the right things like getting to bed early, eating right and working harder in the weight room. So I can only get better.”

And having her parents Dave and Laura Charlton, as well as sister Laurel in the stands cheering her on, helped to boost her confidence.

“It’s been hard for them because before I came here, they attended all of my meets,” Charlton said. “Now they can only come to the big events like conference, regionals and nationals. I was glad when they came to Drake though. We had a lot of fun. That was where I broke the national record. I tied my national record here, so they need to continue to come to my meets.”

While Charlton was 10th overall in the preliminaries of the 200m in 23.70 for third in her heat, Cox turned in the fifth fastest time of 23.38 for second in her heat, but she had to withdraw from the final that was won by Ohio State’s junior Aisha Cavin in 22.86.

Another Bahamian at the meet was Danielle Gibson, a sophomore at Penn State. She came in third in the triple jump with a leap of 12.8 metres or 43-feet, 3 3/4-inches and was fourth in the long jump with 6.15 metres or 20-feet, 21/4-inches.

SEC Championships

As his senior year at Texas A&M draws closer to completion, sprinter Shavez Hart split his appearance in the men’s sprints at the Southeastern Conference Championships at the Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.

Hart won the men’s 100m in 10.12 after he turned in the fourth fastest qualifying time of 10.15. He had the fourth fastest time of 20.94 in the preliminaries of the 200m, but came back in the final and improved to second place in 20.23. The race was won by Dedric Dukes, a senior at Florida, in 19.99.

Before he was done, Hart ran the second leg on Texas A&M’s 4 x 100m relay team that crossed the line first in 38.74. Hart also did the second leg on their 4 x 400m relay team that was fourth in 3:03.25.

For his efforts, Hart earned the SEC commissioner’s trophy as the high-point scorer among the men, totalling 21 ¾ points from his victory in the 100 (10.13), runner-up finish in the 200 (20.23), running on the winning 4x100 along with a fourth-place 4x400.

“This was my goal coming into the meet, to be honest, and I got it,” Hart said on the school’s website. “I was confident in all of my events, so I knew I was capable of having a great performance, but to actually do it was pretty awesome watching everything unfold.”

Teray Smith, a sophomore at Auburn, ran 20.84 for sixth place in the 200m final. He had the seventh fastest qualifying time of 21.02. Smith placed 15th overall in the 100m in 10.40. He also anchored the Tigers’ 4 x 400m relay team to 8th place in 39.82.

Meanwhile, three Bahamians participated in the men’s long jump. Latario Collie-Minns cleared 7.68m (25-2 1/2) for fourth place in the men’s long jump. His twin brother Lathone Collie-Minns was at the bottom of the pile in 23th with 6.35m (20-10). The juniors at Texas A&M were joined by Arkansas’ sophomore Trae Carey, who was 18th with 7.09m (23-3 1/4).

And in the triple jump, Latario Collie-Minns soared a wind aided 17.25m (56-7 1/4) to take second place, but he broke the SEC Championship record with a wind-legal 56-4 ½ (17.18) in the final round. Carey came in 18th with 13.64m (44-9), but Lathone Collie-Minns fouled out.

Collie bettered the SEC meet record of 56-3 ¼ (17.15) set by runner-up Christian Taylor of Florida in 2011 and also toppled the Aggie school record of 55-8 ½ (16.98) set by Julian Reid in 2009. Collie moves to No. 4 on the Bahamas all-time list. Under all-conditions Collie’s 56-7 ¼w also bettered Reid’s windy best of 56-1 ¼ (17.10) set in 2009.

NJCAA Championships

At the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Championships, at the Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson, Kansas State, a number of Bahamians were in action for their respective schools.

Essex’s sophomore Kirk Lewis had the best showing on the men’s side when he got fourth in the men’s 110m hurdles in 14.10. He ran faster in a wind-aided 13.97 for fifth in the preliminaries to qualify for the final.

Delano Davis, representing Essex as well and Ian Kerr, in his freshman year at Western Texas, got 11th in 10.35 and 24th in 10.57 respectively as they both failed to advance to the final. The duo were back in the 200 where they didn’t advance as well with Kerr 11th in 21.13 and Davis 12th in 21.14.

Jennaya Hield, a sophomore of Essex Community College, qualified for the women’s 1,500m with the 10th best time of 4:57.11 on day one. She came back on the final day and lowered her time to 5:11.06, but remained in the same position at the end of the final.

Benjamin Najman, a freshman at Allen County, was 11th in the men’s 1,500m preliminaries in 4:08.59, but it wasn’t enough to get him into the final.

Najman came back in the straight final of the 5,000m for 14th place in 15:27.34.

Two Bahamian freshmen from Barton County contested the men’s 400m, but neither advanced out of the preliminaries. Anthony Adderley came in 20th overall in 48.20 and Micah Carey was 30th in 49.46.

Desmond Major, a sophomore at Colby Community College, did not finish the men’s decathlon, which comprised of the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin and 1,500m. He bowed out of competition after he completed the shot put on the first of two days.

The other male competitor in action was Claudius Russell, a freshman for Colby, who didn’t complete the preliminaries of the men’s 800m.

On the women’s side, Kadeisha Heild, a sophomore at Essex, was fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.83m or 19-01 1/2.

And Alexis Smith, competing for Essex as well, did the 100m hurdles in 14.24 for sixth place in the final of the women’s long jump.