Dec. 2, 2008

(This is one of series of championship reviews of the 2007-08 season.)

In a meet that saw a number of conference marks fall over the two days, the Jackson State Lady Tigers and the Prairie View A&M Panthers captured the 2008 SWAC Indoor Track and Field Titles.

The 3,000-meter run saw conference records fall in both the women and men's side. Vasity Chemweno of Arkansas-Pine Bluff had a time of 10:14.15 to set the women's conference record while four other runners each bested the three-year record (11:07.34 by Erikka Thomas of Southern). For the men, Alonzo Thomas of Prairie View beat the previous conference record in the event with a time of 9:01.19. In the same heat, six other runners registered faster times than the conference mark (9:26.07 by Henry Rop of Jackson State).

The women's 400-meter dash saw another conference record fall as Jessica Greene of Southern had a mark of 57.56 seconds to beat the 2004 record set by Alabama A&M's Joy McDonald (59.56). Six other runners registered faster times than the conference mark. .

The women's 800-meter saw another conference record fall as UAPB's Chemweno registered her second conference mark of the day with a run of 2:18.36. Onlookers witnessed another mark fall in the men's 200-meter dash as Texas Southern's William Osborne registered a mark of 21.97 to eclipse the old mark by 32-hundredths of a second (Southern's Albert Turner - 22.29 in 2005).

The distance medley saw two more conference records fall. In the women's, Arkansas-Pine Bluff ran a time of 12:30.70 to beat the previous mark (Grambling State - 13:08.08 - 2005) while Grambling State was second with a time of 12:50.85. In the men, Prairie View had a time of 10:19.24 to beat the record previously held by Jackson State (10:27.20 in 2005). Alabama State finished second with a time of 10:21.03.

In the women's one-mile run, Arkansas-Pine Bluff's Chemweno set her third conference record of the meet as she finished with a time of 5:02.06 - besting the old mark by 15 seconds set by Johnelle Thomas in 2005 (5:17.22). In the women's 400-meter dash, all eight runners bested the previous conference record set by Joy McDonald in 2004. In the end, Kimberly Shaw of Texas Southern had the top time of 56.24 seconds while Tayari Clay of Jackson State was second with a mark of 56.44 seconds. In men's action, both Texas Southern's Jeremy Davis and Southern's Leon Citizen each had faster times than the 2004 record set by Michael Smith, but it was Davis's time of 48.95 seconds - one one-hundredth of a second faster than Citizen's - that won first place.

UAPB's Vasity Chemweno set her fourth conference mark of the meet as she was one of six runners to best the 800-meter SWAC record set by Johnelle Thomas in 2005 (2:25.66). Chemweno won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.55 while Southern's Precious Collins was second with time of 2:17.57.

The final event of the day was the 4-by-400 meter relay. In the women's race, Jackson State set a new conference mark with a time of 3:49.78; Grambling State (3:54.08) and Southern (3:54.91) finished second and third, respectively. The old mark was set by Grambling State in 2005 with a time of 3:55.21.

The JSU Lady Tigers paced their way to the indoor track and field title with strong finishes in a number of events. Courtney Prentiss placed third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.65; Prentiss and teammate Tayari Clay finished second and third in the 200-meter dash. Lady Tigers Taji Dorsey and Lisa Quinn also finished in the top eight. Clay, Dorsey and Quinn finished second, third and fourth in the 400-meter dash while Jemu ZarZar, Adrienne Smith and Jennifer Redman each tallied scoring points in the mile run. ZarZar continued to score points in the distance events, finishing fourth in the 800-meter run and fifth in the 3,000-meter run.

In the 60-meter hurdles, it was Tonice Williams finishing second while teammates Marlisa Hamlett and Candace Frye placed fourth and fifth respectively. The team of Quinn, Dorsey, Williams and Clay placed first in the 4-by-400 meter relay setting a new conference mark by nearly six seconds.

Clay and Amiria Holloman placed second and fourth in the long jump while Holloman also scored in the triple jump. In the shot put, Danielle Miller placed third with Stephanie Cleve finishing sixth. In the final women's event - the weight throw - Leadrianna White finished first while Deshawnn Chiles was third and Cleave finished sixth.

For Prairie View A&M, Chris Taylor placed second in the men's 60-meter dash; Jarryd Gray then placed eighth in the 200-meter dash before finishing fifth in the 400-meter dash. Alonzo Thomas won the mile with a mark of 4:22.84 before setting a SWAC record in the 3,000-meter run. Teammates Ashton Brown (3rd) and Rolanda Dejean (8th) also earned points with their finishes in the event. Thomas and Brown would go on the finish first and second in the 5,000-meter run. In the 800-meter run, Matthew Jones and Brandon Hicks placed third and sixth, respectively.

After placing the best time during preliminary action, Jason Mitchell finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles. In the 4-by-400 meter relay, the team of Daniel Anderson, Gray, Jared Alexander and Jason Okoro ran a time of 3:17.42 for second place. Then Jones, Mitchell, Dejean and Thomas set a meet record in the distance medley.

Justin Williams and Glenn Cason finished tied for fifth in the high jump while Justin Brewer won the pole vault. Kenneth Wilson took second the long jump while Ken Wilson placed eight in the triple jump. In the shot put, Marcus Carter, Bradley Durham and Johnny Piggee finished second, third and fourth for a combined total of 19 points. Durham then went on to win the weight throw for the final tally.