Final Results

NEW ORLEANS—The Alabama State University women's track and field team made it a trifecta when they won their third consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Outdoor Track and Field Championship as they easily outdistanced second place Prairie View A&M 243-166.  The men finished sixth in the event.

“It feels good to win that third consecutive championship, but what I am proud of is the triple crown this season we were able to win with a cross country and an indoor and outdoor championship, that is hard to do in the same season,” head coach Ritchie Beene said, who was named the SWAC Women's Coach of the Year.

The day started out with another big field performance from Shexnieavia Bryant who won the discus throw with a throw of 41.23m and another 10 points for the Lady Hornets who sent them on their way to gaining 145 points in today's events.  Bryant's weekend of work saw her named the Most Outstanding Field Performer.

ASU won three events in today's action and pulled in four more second place finishes in the day's 13 events.  The 4x100 meter relay team of Jasmine Pope, Tia Rolle, Asha Tavernier and Latrice Lee won that event crossing the line in 45.03.  Rolle then turned around and won the 100 meter dash with a first-place time of 11.97.

Second place finishes went to Rolle in the 200 meter dash (24.01), Courtney Gooch in the 5,000 meter run (19:02.41), Tyrisha Chambers in the high jump (1.63m) and the 4x400 meter relay team (3:45.81).

“Once we got off to the good start in the discus with those points and then picking up the win in the 4x100 relay, we just got that good push to start the day,” Beene said.  “The women really got going and just never looked back.”

“This group of senior girls we have are really a special group,” Beene added.  “It is going to be hard to replace them and they have really been special to me.  They are part of my first signing class as the head coach and we wanted to send them out with another championship and we were able to do just that.”

The men's shortage of numbers really hurt them in the final round as they completed the event with 75 sixth-place points, only 15 points out of fifth place as they gained 48 points today.

Ronald Jordan highlighted the day with a second place finish (52.89) in the 400 meter hurdles and Lee Thrasher ended a big weekend with a third place finish in the discus throw with a toss of 44.56m.

“I feel really good about the men and the effort they gave us this weekend,” Beene said.  “They came into this championship knowing it was going to be a hard fight and they ran and performed hard all three days.  Because our numbers are low, we had several men compete in five different events, which really was hard in this heat and yet they were out there fighting until the end.”

“Lee Thrasher was outstanding all weekend and only lost out on the Men's Field Performer honor by a couple of points.  He has a chance to have a super career at ASU.”

Now that the championships are over, the Hornets and Lady Hornets have several performers that will concentrate on trying to qualify for the NCAA Nationals which come up in a month.