Grambling pulls away for SWAC men’s track crown

NEW ORLEANS — Southern’s track resurgence will have to wait until next season.

Behind its strength — field events — the men’s team entered the final day of the Southwestern Athletic Conference track and field championships in second place but exited Tad Gormley Stadium on Sunday afternoon out of reach of Grambling, which earned its fifth consecutive title.

In three days, the Tigers scored 146 points, led by four individual winners. Keenun Guillory won the 110-meter hurdles (14.52), Akeem Williams took the 400 meters (46.19), Shawn Jackson claimed the 400-meter hurdles (52.87) and Grambling won the 400-meter relay (40:65) — a race the Jaguars were in contention for until faulty handoffs dropped them to third (40:84).

“We were determined to win this championship,” said Grambling coach Bertram Lovell, whose indoor team finished second to Prairie View A&M in Funerary. “I’ve got a thing I say: I’m not going to let anybody beat me twice. And I tried to instill the same thing in the students. That showed today because they were determined.”

Prairie View finished second with 130 points, followed by Mississippi Valley (117) and Southern (113).

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