Track and field picked up two major victories on the second day of the John Jacobs Invitational in Norman, Okla.
Sophomore Johnathan Farquharson finished first in the men’s 100-meter dash, and freshman Kenzie Walker won the women’s pole vault on Saturday at the University of Oklahoma. The Wildcats competed against several top-notch teams at the two-day meet, including Oklahoma State, SMU, Central Oklahoma, Tulsa and North Texas.
This was Walker’s third victory of the season and second outdoors with a personal record of 12 feet-2.5 inches. Farquharson also finished fifth in the men’s 200-meter dash and ran anchor in the 4×100-meter relay team, helping them finish second with a time of 41.01, only .12 seconds behind North Texas’s winning time.
Farquharson’s success contributed greatly to the ACU men’s overall score of 108 points, which put them in second place at the meet behind Oklahoma’s 197 points. The ACU women’s team finished fourth out of five teams with a final score of 61.
Another standout for the Wildcats was Baptiste Kerjean, who earned his own victory Friday in the men’s hammer throw. Kerjean has been dominating this season, with several first-place performances already under his belt before Friday’s victory. He has high hopes for the team as the season draws to a close and the Wildcats approach conference championships.
“I feel like the performances overall are really close to our personal best, which indicates that we are close to reaching our peak in the season,” Kerjean said. “You should expect to see a couple of really good personal bests the few next weeks.”
Junior Lexus Williams earned another top-five finish for herself this weekend, coming in third in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Teammate Emily Hill matched her, finishing third in the women’s 800-meter run, while freshman Shaunice Guyton finished fifth in the women’s 100-meter dash with a personal record of 12.26.
The men picked up numerous top-five finishes as well. Sophomore Luke Woods finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles with a 15.25, just finishing behind third-place teammate Jeremy Tatham’s 14.98. Tatham also finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a 58.65. Osie Alleyne-Forte earned third place in the 400-meter dash with a 48.46.
Malcolm Barnes came fourth in the long jump, while Jelani Rainey also finished fourth in the men’s discus. Rainey’s launch of 44.28 meters fell behind teammate Aaron Bynum’s third-place discus throw 50.78 meters. Bynum also finished fifth in the javelin with a throw of 56.33m.
“All of the throwers on the team had a really good meet. We had a couple of PRs and everyone else threw close to their PRs,” Bynum said. “I can see that as a team we are steadily improving, but there is still a lot of work to do.”
The Wildcats return to action Wednesday at the Drake Relays in Iowa.
