ATLANTA Ga. - Led by freshman
Kara Stokes, the Clayton State University women's track & field team broke two team records and produced three firsts on Saturday at the Emory Mini Meet. The records came in the 400-meter hurdles and the 4x400-meter relay and Stokes was in on both marks.
She bettered teammate
Katelyn Stache's week-old record in the 400-meter hurdles by lowering it by more than a second. Stokes placed third in 1:08.25 and improved her personal best by 2.6 seconds. In the 4x400-meter relay, Stokes led off as Stache,
Kisha Chaney and Jon Taylor finished up in 4:05.25 to win the event. The quartet bettered the old mark, set in 2002, by more than five seconds.
"Kara had a very good meet," said Clayton State head coach
Mike Mead. "She's been working extremely hard in practice and she hit pay dirt today. We had several others, like Kisha and
Melissa Fernandez, who had breakthrough efforts. The ladies team has put it together the last two meets and I'm looking for more improvement next Saturday."
The other first place finishes came from Taylor in the 200-meter dash and
Allison Kreutzer in the 3,000-meter run. Earlier in the day, Kreutzer finished second in the 1500-meter run, an event she provisionally qualified last weekend for the NCAA Division II championships. Chaney finished fourth in the 400-meter and is within 1.2 seconds of the five year old team record. Fernandez ran a season-best 2:31.73 in the 800-meter run and
Wynona Rice finished sixth in the 100-meter dash.
The squad had another solid day in field events, led by Sharon Wiles' fourth place in the shot put and Nyisha Nelson's fourth in the discus. In addition, the squad earned sixth place finishes from Nelson in the shot put, Rice in the long jump and Basia Bukowska in the javelin.
Meantime, the Clayton State men had only three compete, led by freshman
Alfred Dixon's first place in the high jump. Dixon, a former Mundy's Mill H.S. jumper, cleared 6-4 for the win and his best jump of the outdoor season.
Peter Gajda ran his best collegiate 800-meter run, finishing fourth in 1:57.63 while Ben Londrillo placed fourth in the pole vault.
The Clayton State squads head back to Alabama next Saturday for a meet near Huntsville, Ala. The D-II Southern Championships, hosted by Alabama-Huntsville, will be held at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Ala.
