ASU Lady Hornets Win Fifth Consecutive Indoor Championship

BIRMINGAM, Ala.—Alabama State University's Lady Hornets track and field team made it five in a row when they won the 2013 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Indoor Track and Field Championship.

The current winning streak started in 2009 and with today's championship, the Lady Hornets have now won nine indoor titles. ASU went into today's second day of events with a 43 point lead and pulled away grabbing 218 points easily out distancing second place Prairie View A&M's 155.

“I will take a championship anytime we can get one,” Head Coach Ritchie Beene said. “The girls did exceptional today and we had a lot of the younger girls really step up and responded well in a championship setting.”

The Lady Hornets won three individual titles led by Tia Rolle who won both the 60m dash (7.45) and the 200m dash (24.02). Coupled with yesterday's win in the long jump, Rolle won all three of her events and grabbed 30 total points for ASU.

Rolle led a runaway in the 200m as ASU won 26 points in the event. Kadijah Gordon (24.92) finished third followed by Latrice Lee in fourth (25.01), Jasmine Pope was sixth (25.13) and Brianna Scott-Glover was seventh (25.27).

The 60m dash produced 22 points for ASU with Rolle's win followed by Pope's second place finish (7.64) and Lee's fifth place finish (7.68).

ASU went one-two in the 5000m run grabbing 18 points with Paige Rankine winning the event in 18:42.12 and Artrailia Lesane finishing second in 19:04.36.

Another big point producer for the Lady Hornets was the 800m run (15 pts.). Jerrica Mahone finished second in the event (2:13.55), Shantia Wilson was fourth (2:16.12) and Lesane (2:22.18) finished seventh.

Lesane had a busy day as she led an ASU three-some in the mile run with her second place finish (5:07.48). Rankine was third (5:15.48) and Soyong Smith finished seventh (5:23.94) as ASU pulled in 16 points.

Alexis Ferebee finished fifth (57.20) in the 400m dash and Kim Wedderburn was sixth (57.52) and Pope was eighth (57.71) as ASU had eight points.

The final event of the day saw the Lady Hornets team of Wedderburn, Gordon, Pope and Mahone finish second (3:58.73) in the 4x400m relay earning eight points.

ASU had a strong showing in the three field event finals today. Imani White was third (16.13m) and Mia Mike eighth (15.36m) in the weight throw pulling down 11 points.

The pole vault had 14 points for ASU with Quinta Collier's second place finish (2.71m) and Fola Richardson's third place finish (2.61m). The final field event was the triple jump and Gordon finished second (J11.82m) and Vernezia James was seventh (11.09m) as ASU pulled in 10 points.

“We did really well in the field events today,” Beene said. “We had not been doing so well in some of the field events this season but put it together and dominated today. We had been on the lower end on our jumps and throws during the regular season, but we could tell they were getting better as the season went along and they put it all together today.”

“Tia was Tia in winning three events over the two days, but I was really proud of Artrailia, a freshman who won 23 points for us,” Beene added. “Jas (Pope) was also strong for us competing in four events and pulling in points in all four events.”

With the Lady Hornets championship, Ritchie Beene was named the Women's SWAC Indoor Coach of the Year.

The men had a much better day today than the first day yesterday even though they finished seventh with 61 points. The men's field was much closer as ASU was only 28 points from a second place finish.

Prairie View won the men's title with 132 points followed by Grambling's 89 and Texas Southern with 80. Jackson State was fourth with 79.5 points and Mississippi Valley State had 76 points with ASU next with their 61. Arkansas-Pine Bluff was next with 17 and Alabama A&M had 10.5.

In the field events Chris Amisial pulled down the lone first place finish in the pole vault with a winning vault of 3.95m. Sylvester Byrd finished sixth (2.95) as ASU won 12.5 points in the event.

Lee Thrasher had another solid showing with a second place finish in the weight throw (17.50m) earning eight points. It was his second time in the championship he had a second place finish.

In the running events Brandon Coombs finished second (4:25.71) in the mile run and Carlos Flores finished third (1:54.75) in the 800m run followed by Coombs who finished eighth (2:20.30). ASU pulled in seven points in the event.

Byrd had a busy day for the Hornets participating in three events and winning points in each event. He was seventh (6.90) in the 60m dash and also seventh in the 200m dash (21.95). He earned two points in each race.

The men's 4x400m relay team finished seventh with a time of 3:17.62. The relay team was made up of Flores, Coombs, Byrd and Dyrez Ribeiro.

“Overall we are not really happy with the men's finish, but today I was really happy with the way they competed,” Beene said. “We would have liked to have more people make the finals from yesterday's preliminaries, but those that did really stepped up. Chris had a big win in the pole vault and Lee was again strong with his second place finish. Brandon had a second place finish while Byrd competed in three events winning several points for us.”

Today's action brings a close to the indoor season, but the Hornets will not have too much time off as the outdoor season begins March 8-9 at the Samford Invitational in Birmingham.

Final Results

COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION