The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was another spectacular showing for Bahamians at the Big Ten Indoor Championships as Danielle Gibson won the triple for the Penn State Lions and Devynne Charlton fell just short of a triple feat for Purdue University Boilermakers to lead the way on Saturday in Geneva, Ohio.

Inside the Spire Institute, Gibson captured the women’s triple jump title with her mark of 43-feet, 4-inches (13.25m) to become just the second Penn State athlete to win the event at the conference meet joining Chi-Chi Aduba who won the event in 2003 with a mark of 44’-1.50” (13.44m).

“Beyond what I expected, the competition in the Big Ten has progressed so much from my freshman year,” Gibson told The Tribune. “You are not only competing against girls in your conference, but some of the top people in the nation.

“Competition was stiff, but that’s the way I like it because victory feels so much better knowing you had to work for it and that it wasn’t given o me.”

The senior closed out her indoor career by finishing sixth in the long jump with 18-0 1/2. (5.50m).

“Overall my performances were good and I’m very proud of myself,” Gibson summed up. “I know the distances were not my best, but I felt as though I competed and that was a message my coaches always try to drive home to me.”

Meanwhile on the track, Charlton had an exceptional meet, winning both the 60m and 60m hurdles and then finishing off the day as the runner-up in the 200m.

She started with the 60m dash, an event she has finished runner-up the last two years, winning in a time of 7.26 seconds, breaking her own school record by 0.04 of a second. It was the No.10 time in the country this year and the fastest at the Big Ten Championships since 2012 and tied for the fastest by any woman in the Big Ten since that 2012 race.

Fellow Bahamian Keianna Albury, a sophomore at Penn State, was third in the race in 7.43.

“I felt good about my performances with two new personal best times and a tie for another,” Charlton told The Tribune. “But I think I enjoyed the 60m the most. I was second two years in a row and I’m happy that I was able to come away with the win in my senior year.”

With her family in the stands cheering her on, Charlton came back 40 minutes later and successfully defended her title in the 60m hurdles, this time with Bahamian national outdoor record holder Pedrya Seymour from Illinois in the race as they ran side-by-side.

Charlton, beaten by Seymour earlier this year, had to come from behind as she leaned across the finish line in 7.97 seconds, tying her own Bahamian indoor national, school and facility record from last year’s Big Ten meet, edging her Bahamian Illinois arch-rival by 0.01 of a second.

Charlton’s time ranks No. 2 in the NCAA this season and is the fastest by any woman in the country since January 28 when Oregon’s Sasha Wallace ran her nation-leading 7.91-seconds time.

Charlton is one of seven women in Big Ten history to win consecutive Big Ten 60m hurdles titles. She is one of just two to win the 60m dash and 60m hurdles at the same Big Ten Championships and the first since 2012. Charlton is the only woman in school history to win the 60m hurdles Big Ten title.

Seymour, unavailable for comments, had to settle for second in 7.98, tying her personal best performance.

“Pedrya really pushed me the last few hurdles,” Charlton said. “She had a good race. We both tied our PRs and I’m excited to see how we both compete at Nationals in two weeks (March 10-11 in College Station).”

Forty minutes after earning her second gold of the day, Charlton was back in the starting blocks for the 200m dash. She entered the race with a season-best time of 23.91 seconds and a personal best of 23.64 seconds.

But she went on to run a PR time of 23.53, which ranks second in school history, just 0.05 of a second behind the school record. It took the fourth-fastest time in the country of 22.83 by Brittany Brown, a junior at Iowa, to keep Charlton from winning a third event in just under an hour and a half.

Charlton’s finish is the highest-ever by a Boilermaker in the 200m dash at a Big Ten Indoor Championships.

“In the 200m, I knew that since I was to Keianna’s outside, I would have to get out hard and keep pushing toward the end because she’s a strong finisher and she would be coming,” Charlton added.

Albury finished fourth in 23.69 after running 23.55 in the preliminaries to get into the final.

Another Bahamian, Carmiesha Cox, also in her senior year at Purdue, suffered a hamstring pull as she coasted through the preliminaries of the 200m in 24.16. She also missed running the final of the 60m after running 7.36 in heat.

On the men’s side, Kinard Rolle, a sophomore at Purdue, clocked 47.11 for 11th overall as he missed a trip to the final.

ACC INDOOR

CHAMPIONSHIPS

In South Bend, Indiana, Henri Delauze finished fourth in the men’s 400m final in a personal best of 46.82 for the University of Miami as he also moved up one step into second place in their school history.

Delauze, in his junior year, also ran the second leg for the Hurricanes men’s 4 x 400m relay team that was eighth in the final in 3:12.70, a time that ended up being the fifth fastest in Miami’s history.

On the field, Bahamian freshman Celine Thompson, also representing the Hurricanes, was tied for sixth in the women’s high jump Bailey Weiland, a junior at Georgia Tech after they both cleared 1.65m.

SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS

At home in Auburn, Alabama, senior Teray Smith ran 20.93 for fifth place in the men’s 200m.

The Bahamian Olympian, who ran 20.92 to qualify fifth in the preliminaries, is ranked No.14 nationally with a time of 20.75 that he clocked at the Tiger Paw Invite.

Grand Bahamian native Teray Smith ran the second leg of the Tigers men’s 4 x 400m as they placed seventh in 3:08.51.

Xavier Coakley, Smith’s team-mate at Auburn where they are trained by Bahamian assistant coach Henry Rolle, just missed getting into the final of the men’s 60m hurdles. He placed ninth in the preliminaries in 7.95.

On the women’s side, Jenae Ambrose placed tenth in the women’s 200m in 23.71,but it wasn’t enough to get the sophomore into the final.