The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the collegiate athletes get ready for the NCAA Indoor Championships, others were making their outdoor debuts over the weekend in the United States, including Olympian Michael Mathieu.

Mathieu, the 200/400 metre specialist from Grand Bahama, dropped all the way down to the 100m at the 2017 University of Tampa’s Track Classic at the Pepin/Rood Stadium where he won the sprint race that featured a couple more Bahamians in 10.58.

Alfred Higgs followed Mathieu in second place in 10.71 and Erold Farquharson came in sixth in 11.13. Farquharson, representing Florida Tech, also competed in the 200m where he was fourth in 22.49.

TULANE EARLY BIRD

In New Orleans, Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana six-foot, three-inch graduate student Andre Colebrook raced to victory at the 2017 Tulane Twilight Invitational in a personal best of 51.76 to win the men’s 400m hurdles.

Sprinter Cliff Resais, competing unattached at the Tad Gormley Stadium, picked up one of two other victories for the Bahamas when he sped to 10.58 in the men’s 100m.

Also at the meet, quarter-miler Ashley Riley from Southeastern Louisiana clocked 33.85 to hold off fellow Bahamian and teammate Maverick Bowleg, who did 34.17 in their men’s 300m match-up.

And Kaziah Rolle, the Bahamian representative at SE Louisiana, was fifth in the century in 12.36.

NCAA INDOOR

QUALIFIERS

Before they begin their outdoor season this weekend at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, five Bahamians will be closing out their indoor campaigns at the NCAA Division Indoor Championships.

Purdue senior Devynne Charlton and Illinois’ junior Pedrya Seymour will clash once again in the women’s 60m hurdles as the No. 2 and No.3 qualifiers in times of 7.87 and 7.89 respectively.

Charlton, coming off her Big Ten Conference Top Athlete performance at the Big Ten Conference two weeks ago, will have double duties as she also contests the 60m with the 11th best time of 7.26.

Also qualified to compete are Penn State’s senior Danielle Gibson, who will contest the women’s triple jump as the 12th qualifier with a leap of 13.33 metres or 43-feet, -9inches, Auburn University’s senior Teray Smith with the 12th best time of 20.75 in the men’s 200m and University of Nebraska’s junior Kaiwan Culmer with the 10th best performance of 16.07m (52-8 ¾) in the men’s triple jump.

Purdue’s senior Carmiesha Cox also qualified for the championships as a member of the Boilermakers’ women’s 4 x 400m relay team. But at the Big Ten Championships she had to withdraw from further competition because of a slight hamstring injury.

The NCAA Championships, featuring the top 16 qualifiers, will be held from Friday to Saturday.