The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT was a weekend coach Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene will cherish for the rest of his life.

After being inducted into the Drake Relays’ Coaches Hall of Fame, Greene got to watch as his Kentucky Wildcats won the women’s championship cup and his protégé Devynne Charlton held her own in the women’s 100 metre hurdles.

On Thursday in the Shivers Basketball Practice Facility on the Drake Campus in Des Moines, Iowa, Lonnie Greene got enshrined into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame for 40 relay wins at Drake Relays over the past 10 years with Purdue University and Kentucky.

To complement the feat, his Wildcats women’s track team won the relay cup with 36 points on the heels of winning the 4 x 800m, 4 x 400m and sprint medley relays. The men’s team placed second with 26 points after winning the 4 x 100m and placing second in the 4 x 400m.

Sophomore Megan Moss, who got her first major global experience at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, was a part of the 4 x 400m relay team comprising of Karimah Davis, Dajour Miles and Alexis Holmes as they capped off the meet in grand style in a winning time of 3:33.60.

Fresh off her World Indoors Championships’ silver medal in Serbia after her sixth place at the Tokyo Olympics, Devynne Charlton, whom Greene coaches as a part of the Bahamian connection at both Purdue and now Kentucky, raced to a sixth place finish in 13.07 in the women’s 100m hurdles.

The race was won by Tia Jones of Adidas in 12.84, while Olympic champion and record holder Jasmine Camacho-Quinn didn’t complete the race.

“It’s always an honour when an independent group of people judge the body of your work, worthy to be inducted or enshrined into something as great at Drake’s Hall of Fame, I’m truly blessed by it,” Greene said.

“When I got into it as a coach, I didn’t do it to get a pat on the back, but to be able to work with young people. But when they reward you by bringing you into a fraternity of administrators, coaches and athletes such as the Drake Relays, it was quite rewarding. It brought me to tears.”

Greene said to watch his women’s triumphant achievement was the icing on the cake.

“To go into the Hall and then to win the women’s title, that was icing on the cake. That blessed me tremendously,” Greene said. “The kids competed well. It was cold. Drake Relay is known for its cold, but I believe competing in that atmosphere builds character.

“It enables us to go into what I call championship mode. We have a week off, then we start the SEC Championships in 12 days and then we have a week off and then we have the first round of the NCAA Championships, then we have another week off and then the finals of the championships in Eugene, Oregon.”

While their athletes got to prepare for the Drake Relays competition, Greene said he and his wife were joined by his brother Antonio Greene and his wife as well as Purdue University’s coach Norbert Elliott and his wife for dinner.

“We got a meal. We got a good meal,” he said. “It was like old times. We had to go and break bread.”

Elliott got to do some celebrations as well as Purdue’s senior Tamar Greene placed third in the men’s triple jump with a best leap of 51-7 ¼ (15.73m) on his second attempt behind teammate Safin Wills with 51-8 (15.75m) on his sixth try.

James Carter, a junior at Iowa, won the title with 51-9 ¾ (15.79m) on his fifth jump.

Up next, the Boilermakers head to the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships May 13-15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before they too prepare for the NCAA Championships.