The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Devynne Charlton and Latario Collie picked up third place finishes in the women’s 60 metres hurdles and the men’s triple jump respectively as they led a group of Bahamians competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships over the weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.

Charlton, competing for the Purdue Boilermakers, clocked 7.99 seconds for her second-fastest time of her career and was just 0.02 of a second off her school and Bahamian national record that she posted in winning the Big Ten Conference title two weeks ago.

“I feel good about the way Devynne performed. It was a very fast race. That race would have won the World Indoor Championships,” said Purdue’s Bahamian head coach Rolando Greene.

“She executed well. She’s come far. I think she’s got 12.60 in her by the time we come to outdoors.”

Originally, Charlton had qualified for the World Indoors scheduled for this weekend in Eugene, Oregon, but she opted not to make the trip to ‘Track City USA.’

Instead, she wants to concentrate on her training for the trek to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.

“She felt in her heart that she wanted to prepare for Rio so we set her training cycle up in preparation for getting her ready for Rio de Janeiro,” Greene said.

“She felt she would have lost training time going to World Indoors, so I think it was a very sound and mature decision on her part.”

During the preliminaries, Charlton was matched against fellow Bahamian Pedrya Seymour, who attends Illinois.

While Charlton got the better of the match-up, finishing second in 8.08, Seymour was sixth in 8.19. Charlton ended up posting the fifth fastest qualifying time, but Seymour got eliminated in the 13th spot overall.

Seymour, however, will go on to compete at the Worlds. She was given a late invitation by the IAAF and she accepted.

In his performance in the men’s triple jump, Collie soared 53-11 ¼ (16.44 metres) to secure the bronze medal as he improved upon his fifth place position from a year ago at the national indoor meet.

Placing third, Collie matched the highest finish by an Aggie in the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor meet, joining Zuheir Sharif (2009) and Julian Reid (2011). 

“It’s been really hard since my season started off rough,” said Collie. “I thought I could have won the event, but my takeoff was too far behind the board. The runway was fine and I was able to produce something when I was really pressured. I knew I had to score points for my team.”

Collie, who ended the meet with a best this season of 53-5 from the SEC meet two weeks ago, produced his best marks of the season on three of his six attempts in battling for a top three finish. An opening round of 52-11 ½ (16.14) was followed 53-7 ½ (16.34), 53-8 ½ (16.37), 52-9 ¼ (16.08), foul, and 53-11 ¼.

“We had some good efforts today and it’s good to see Latario get going again after having a foot hurting him most of the indoor season,” said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry.”That was a good sign today.”

In the only other individual performance at the meet, Dannielle Gibson, a junior at Penn State, came in 10th in the women’s triple jump with her leap of 42-3 1/4 (12.88m).

Meanwhile, Purdue men’s 4 x 400m relay team, featuring Kinard Rolle on the third leg in a split of 47.07, got third in their heat as they finished seventh overall. Their time of 3:07.00 was the second fastest in school history behind only their own time ran at the Big Ten Championships. Nicholas Parks, Kyle Webb and Shawdail McLaren joined Rolle on the team.

And their women’s 4x400m relay team with Carmiesha Cox on the second leg,  finished 11th in the country with a time of 3:34.12. That time is the second fastest in programme history behind their own school record set at Big Tens. The other members were Symone Black, Aarin jones and Brionna Thomas.

Just like Charlton, coach Greene had nothing but praise for the other Bahamian Boilermakers.

“I’m very proud of them. I wished I had 10 more Bahamians who want to be Boilermakers,” said Greene, who is assisted by Bahamian Norbert Elliott.

“They are all doing outstanding. Carmiesha is a staple for us, Kinard just ran 47 indoors, I think he will do 45 outdoors. He’s splitting 45s on relay carries. He was just seventh on our All-American relay team.

“Carmiesha should be back in true form outdoors. I think our decision to red shirt (freshman) Keanu (Pennerman) was the best decision that we could have made for him. On top of that, I wish there was more where they came from. We want to keep the pipeline from the Bahamas to Purdue University going.”

On hand to watch the meet were Charlton’s parents, Laura and Dave Charlton.

“We’re always proud of Devynne and we look forward to being there to support her at all of her major competitions and this one was no exception,” Laura Charlton said.

“Last year, she competed and she was 12th, so she didn’t receive any award. This year, she moved up to third position, so it really made us feel as parents that her hard work has paid off.

“Devynne is a very humble person. So whatever she gets, we feel as if she deserves it. She’s having fun and we’re totally proud of what she is doing and what the coaching staff at Purdue is doing. They are not only concerned about what they are doing on the track, but also in the classroom.”

As for the other Bahamians at the meet, Charlton said they were even proud of their performances as they supported each other them, including Collie, Gibson, Seymour, Cox and Rolle.

She said all of them did exceptionally well and they are looking forward to what they will all do during the outdoor season.