The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BEGINNING her junior year at Oral Roberts, Sasha Wells has already inked her name on a Summit League Female Track Athlete of the Week.

She did it before she came home for the Christmas break for the week of December 2-8 as she opened her season with three top-3 finishes, including one event title at the Bob Timmons Challenge on December 6.

During the meet, Wells won the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.43, .02 seconds off her school record and Summit League record. Less than 25 minutes after winning her first race of the season, she placed second in the 60m (7.63), before finishing the night as a member of the 4x400m that clocked in at 3:56.22.

“It’s been good. We got one meet in before winter break and that was a good meet for me,” Wells told The Tribune during one of her training sessions at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium. “I was .02 off my 60m hurdles PR and I was very close to my 60m PR and I won the 60m hurdles at the meet, which was a good indicator of where I’m at this season.”

The performances have left Wells individually ranked at No.5 in the nation in the 60m hurdles and at No.45 in the 60m dash. As for the 4x400m relay, the team of Shalom Keller and the Bahamian connection of Kayvon Stubbs, Gabrielle Gibson and Wells is No. 35.

Wells, 20, is the first female Golden Eagle to be named athlete of the week since Aniekeme Etim took home the honour on December 5, 2017. It is the first athlete of the week honour for the five-time Summit League champion.

But as she prepares to return to Oral Roberts on January 6 for the rest of the indoor and the outdoor season, Wells said she has some lofty goals to attain.

“My overall goal obviously is to make the Olympic team and to go to the Olympics,” said Wells of the world’s top-notch event, scheduled for Tokyo, Japan July 24 to August 9.

“But I’m taking things step by step first.

“I want to win my conference title in the 60m and the 60m hurdles and better my PR.”

If she would have her way, Wells said her concentration would be on attaining the qualifying standard of 12.84 in the 100m hurdles, but if she’s influenced by her father, Renward Wells, it would be the 100m where the standard is 11.15.

“Hurdles are just my main event and I feel I’m better at it, but my dad believes I will be better in the sprints. That’s where I shine most in the hurdles,” said Wells of her father Renward, a graduate of Oral Roberts University and a former Bahamian national century record holder who went on to represent the Bahamas at the World Championships and the Olympics before he became the Member of Parliament for Bamboo Town and now the Minister of Transport and Local Government.

She has currently produced a lifetime best of 13.39 over the 10 flights of high hurdles in the 100m stripe and 11.87 in the straight-away race, while posting a 7.54 in the 60m hurdles.

When she returns to Oral Roberts, the history major will compete in her first meet for 2020 on Friday, January 17 at the Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “It’s been good, trying to balance athletics and schoolwork,” Wells said. “I’m involved in a few other things at school, but I’m enjoying it because it’s helped me to grow as a person.”

To the youngsters here at home, Wells said she enjoyed the time spent working with the High Performance Track Club’s Sprints and Hurdles Clinic over the weekend at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium. “It was a good experience. I learned a lot, going back to the basics,” she said. “I just want to encourage them to stay motivated, not just in track, but in school because you need both if you want to go off to college.”

Wells is joined at Oral Roberts by her brother, Sethren Wells, who is in his senior year competing in the hurdles as well. They also have another sister attending the school, but not competing in athletics. They were all home schooled before heading to Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Wells siblings are joined on the track team by Bradley Dormeus, a quarter-miler in his sophomore year from CR Walker, Gabrielle Gibson, a sprinter/hurdler in her sophomore year from Bahamas Academy, Lakelle Kinteh, a sprinter/long jumper in her freshman year from SAC, and Kayvon Stubbs, a sprinter in her junior year who was home schooled.