Six members of ACU’s track and field team will travel to Walnut, Calif. this weekend for the 55th running of the Mt. SAC Relays.
Seniors Baptiste Kerjean, Amanda Ouedraogo, Chloe Susset, Ayesha Rumble and Banjo Jaiyesimi will travel to the golden state to represent ACU.
Freshman Xavier King will also join the seniors for the competition. The rest of the squad will travel to Waco to compete in the Michael Johnson Dr. Pepper Classic.
“I’m confident in our team and in the students going to California,” head coach Jerrod Cook said. “The seniors and Xavier have proven themselves and I know they will do well.”
Kerjean currently owns the second-best hammer throw in NCAA Division-II at 213 feet-8 inches (65.13 meters) and will attempt to better that mark against an all-star field that features the top-two throwers in all of D-I, Alec Faldermeyer of UCLA (228-10) and Nick Miller of Oklahoma State (227-4).
Ouedraogo will compete for the triple jump title in a field of ten other competitors. In the Texas Relays, she put up a 43-03.25 (13.19m) that was good enough for fourth place.
Susset and Rumble both are ranked seventh in their individual events. Susset also is the 11th-ranked runner in the 1500m with a top time of 4:32.87, which she recorded last weekend at West Texas A&M.
Susset won the steeplechase at the Texas Tech Open behind a season-best time of 10:48.79, while Rumble placed fourth there with a 800m time of 2:11.22 the weekend before that.
“I feel that this team is doing extremely well,” sophomore Lauren Hartwick said. “Coach Cook has been awesome and we have had a lot of people step up and really perform well.”
Middle-distance runners Jaiyesimi and King are just a few seconds shy of attaining provisional marks in the 800m and 1500m, respectively.
Jaiyesimi’s 800m season-best of 1:52.58 currently ranks him 26th in D-II and is a mere .08 seconds shy of the provisional standard, while King ranks 50th with his mark of 3:56.00.
King – an all-conference cross country selection in his first fall at ACU – needs to run under 3:52.00 in order receive national championship consideration.
In Waco, sprinter senior Shennae Steele, sophomore Lexus Williams and freshman Johnathan Farquharson will compete against rival schools Angelo and Tarleton State.
TCU, Sam Houston State and Oklahoma State will also compete at Baylor over the weekend.
“We have consistently stepped up all season when we’ve had to and I know we will again at Baylor,” Cook said.
Stark and Brooks each recorded career best scores during their outdoor season debuts in the decathlon and heptathlon last weekend at West Texas A&M.
Brooks totaled 4,954 points – a personal record by 153 points, while Stark won four events en route to scoring 6,276 points – bettering his previous career best by 172 points.
