Five HBCU tracksters make U.S. team

WASHINGTON, D.C.  --  Black college products finished 1-3 in the men's 400 meter hurdles and three others earned top three finishes at the recently concluded USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.                        

    

All five HBCU products earned spots and will represent Team USA at the IAAF World Championships August 10 - August 18 in Moscow, Russia.

 

Reigning Olympic silver medalist Michael Tinsley out of Jackson State took home the title in the 400 meter hurdles and former Saint Augustine's hurdler Bershawn "Batman" Jackson finished third in Saturday afternoon's men's final.

    

Tinsley held off Kerron Clement to capture his first national outdoor title. Tinsley finished in 47.96 seconds, the best time in the world this year, nipping Clement who ran 48.06. Jackson was a close third in 48.09. Tinsley runs for adidas while Jackson is with Nike.

    

In the long jump, current Stillman junior sprinter and long jump specialist Jeffrey Henderson, who won NCAA Div. II national titles in the long jump and 100 meters two weeks prior, was narrowly edged for the top prize by George Kitchens, Jr.

    

Henderson leaped 8.22 meters (26 feet, 11 3/4 inches) in his next-to-last (fifth) jump Sunday afternoon to come up just short of Kitchens' winning jump of 8.23 meters (27 feet). This will be Henderson's second trip to the World Championships.

    

"This is my second time making the team, so I'm just preparing for Moscow," Henderson said in an interview after the meet. "The first time I was kind of scared. I was shocked that I made the team but I'm really prepared now."
 

 

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Palmetto's Jordan Smith shoots way into Division I scholarship at S.C. State

JORDAN SMITH

PALMETTO, Florida -- Jordan Smith has been known to make the most of his opportunities on the basketball court.

He scored more than 1,450 points during his high school career at Palmetto and gained a reputation is a deadly long-range shooter, knocking down 66 attempts from beyond the arc (42 percent) during his senior year, when he averaged 20-plus points per game in earning Bradenton Herald All-Area honors. Smith had to change his game last season at Brevard Community College, coming off the bench while being asked to be primarily a shooter, and his averaged dipped to 7.4 points per game.

But against arch-rival Indian River, Smith drained 7 of 10 three-pointers and scored 29 points in 23 minutes in a big Southern Conference game. In the previous game, Smith was 6-for-6 shooting 3-pointers and scored 18 points against Miami Dade.

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XU's Franklin named HBCU Female Athlete of the Year

SiMon Franklin
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

JACKSON, Mississippi --  Xavier University of Louisiana's SiMon Franklin was named HBCU Female Athlete of the Year for 2012-13 on Friday evening.

Franklin, from Baton Rouge, La., and a graduate of Xavier and St. Joseph's Academy, received the honor during the HBCU Awards banquet at the Jackson State University Student Center. The banquet is part of the inaugural National HBCU Media Week, which will conclude Saturday.

Franklin was a standout for Xavier in basketball and track and field. In basketball, Franklin was a four-year starter at guard who earned honorable mention as a senior on the NAIA Division I All-America Team. She was All-Gulf Coast Athletic Conference for the second consecutive season after leading the Gold Nuggets with 10.7 points, 2.4 steals ands 24.9 minutes per game in 2012-13. The MVP of the 2012 GCAC Tournament, Franklin is one of nine Gold Nuggets to reach 1,000 points, 300 rebounds and 200 steals in a career. Franklin had 1,136 points, 331 rebounds, 208 assists, 220 steals in 128 career games at Xavier and helped the Gold Nuggets win three GCAC regular-season championships, two GCAC Tournament championships and qualify for the NAIA Division I National Championship three times.

In track and field, Franklin was the 2013 GCAC outdoor champion in the 400-meter dash, and her time of 56.74 seconds at that meet qualified her automatically for the NAIA National Championships. She ran the anchor leg of the 400 relay team which finished second in the GCAC and also qualified for nationals.

"I am extremely honored," Franklin said. "I thought I was done with athletics and receiving awards after track season ended, but then this happened. To be honored nationwide, that is amazing. I never though anything like that is possible."

Franklin recently began her first full-time job, in the mortgage department of Iberia Bank in downtown New Orleans.

"Monee is first-class person, a wonderful choice for this award and a great representative of Xavier University," said her basketball coach, Bo Browder. "She is the type of student-athlete we continue to recruit for Xavier."

Runners-up to Franklin were Dillard's Jazzmin Smith and Albany State's April Thomas, both basketball players.

XU nominees who did not win were Christabell Hamilton (women's volleyball) for female coach of the year, women's tennis for female team of the year and the College of Pharmacy for best STEM program (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

Xavier is one of 38 U.S. colleges listed as a "Best Buy School" in the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

A list of all the winners:

Female athlete of the year: SiMon Franklin, Xavier

Male athlete of the year: Anaso Jobodwana, Jackson State

Female coach of the year: Toyelle Wilson, Prairie View A&M

Male coach of the year: Connell Maynor, Winston-Salem State

Female team of the year: Hampton basketball

Male team of the year: Southern basketball

Best marching band: Jackson State

Best choir: Oakwood's Aeolian Choir

Best student government association: Albany State

Best student organization: Spelman's SpelBots team

Best student newspaper: North Carolina Central's Campus Echo

Best alumni publication: Morgan State's Morgan Magazine

Female alumna of the year: Nicole Bernard, Howard

Male alumnus of the year: Tom Colbert, Kentucky State

National alumni association of the year: University of the Virgin Islands

Best research center: Howard's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- Center for Atmospheric Sciences

Best STEM program: Hampton

Best social work program: Fayetteville State

Best fine arts program: Alabama State's Department of Theater Arts

Best business program: Paul Quinn

Best nursing program: Dillard

Female student of the year: Olivia Stinson, Winston-Salem State

Male student of the year: Polite Stewart, Southern

Female faculty member of the year and lifetime achievement award: Myrlie Evers Williams, Alcorn State

Male faculty member of the year: Kinfe Ken Redda, Florida A&M

Female president of the year: Dianne B. Suber, Saint Augustine's

Male president of the year: M. Christopher Brown, Alcorn State

HBCU of the year: Spelman

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
XULAATHLETICS
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA

TSU's Covington Inks Deal With the Houston Rockets

NASHVILLE, Tennessee  --  On Friday, former Tennessee State forward Robert Covington signed a partially guaranteed contract with the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association.

“[I] may not have been drafted, but [I’ve been] given a different route to pursue my dreams,” Covington said. “I’m blessed for this opportunity. God still works even in different ways.”

Last season, Covington started 22 games for the Tigers, missing 10 due to a knee injury. He still made the Second-Team All OVC Team after averaging 17 points and 7.9 rebounds per contest. Covington was also second on the squad with 16 steals.

He left TSU as the seventh leading scorer (1,749 career points) and rebounder (876) in school history.

The Rockets were one of the handfuls of teams that brought Covington into workout. The list also includes Memphis, Oklahoma City, Utah, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Detroit, Atlanta and Chicago.

The last Tiger to play in an NBA game was Anthony Mason of the Milwaukee Bucks in 2006.

The Rockets finished 45-37 last year, earning the eighth seed in the Western Conference.

 

 

COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

Southern Jaguars' Odums to address Baton Rouge Press Club July 1

Courtesy Southern University Athletics

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Southern University Football Coach Dawson Odums will be the guest speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club Monday, July 1.

Coach Odums will talk about the upcoming season and what people can expect as he tries to rebuild the program. The Jaguars open fall camp July 31 before conducting its first practice on Aug. 2.

Southern opens its 12-game schedule against the University of Houston Friday, Aug. 30 in Reliant Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. and the game will air live on ESPN3.com.

Lunch, which is served at 11:30 a.m., is $12 for members and $15 for nonmembers. The public is invited, but only members of the Press Club and the news media are allowed to ask questions during the question-and-answer portion of the program.

The Baton Rouge Press Club meets on Mondays at De La Ronde Hall, which is located at 320 Third Street. in downtown Baton Rouge.

 

COURTESY SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS

NCA&T Aggie Men Announce Dominican Republic Trip

GREENSBORO, North Carolina  --  The 2013-14 North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team will look much different from the one that captured the 2013 MEAC basketball championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament. In order to get a head start on trying to repeat despite major changes in his roster, head coach Cy Alexander has announced the team will travel to the Dominican Republic, Aug. 4-8, to play three exhibition games against various semi-professional teams from the Caribbean nation.

A&T lost seven seniors from a team that led the school to its first-ever NCAA win, a 73-72 victory over Liberty in March. Three other players from that historic squad are also not returning. The departures leave the Aggies with five returning players and 10 newcomers.

“This is huge for our program based on the fact we have so many new players,” said Alexander, who has six MEAC titles as a head coach. “This trip allows us to bond as a team and develop chemistry with one another on and off the court. We’ll get to play against very good competition, so we’ll get a chance to see what we need to do to prepare for 2013-14.”

The team has arrived on campus for the second summer school session.  Individual workouts will begin on July 1. Team practice begins July 25 and will be conducted two hours every night until Aug. 3 when the team leaves for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. While there, Alexander also plans to have the team participate in community outreach in order “to bring good will to the Dominican Republic.”

COURTESY NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

FSU Football Schedule Preview: Bethune-Cookman

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  --  Two familiar baseball opponents will meet for the first time on the gridiron when Florida State takes on Bethune-Cookman in week three of the 2013 season.

It’s FSU’s first and only FCS opponent this season, one year removed from playing two of them which greatly damaged the Seminoles schedule strength. But rest easy, as the Wildcats aren’t nearly as pitiful as Murray State nor Savannah State ,the latter being their MEAC brethern.

 

 

Bethune and Florida State shared two mutual opponents last season, the afermentioned Savannah State and the swagger-filled team from Coral Gables. In fact, BCU has played Miami each of the last two seasons, scoring first on the Hurricanes each time before eventually succumbing to the talent difference and losing 45-14 in 2011 and in 2012.

Head coach Brian Jenkins was ...

 

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