NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Trailing first-place Texas-Arlington by one and a half points heading into the final event of the 2009 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Southeastern Louisiana University men’s track and field team needed to find a way to beat the best 4x400 m relay team in the conference to keep their title hopes alive.
Fortunately, for the Lions, senior George Cunningham, sophomore Jerel Butler, junior Adlus Wiltz and sophomore Shannon Grover delivered as the men’s 4x400 m relay team posted a school record time of 3:06.79 to beat at Texas-Arlington relay squad that posted the best time in the conference heading into the meet by 0.58 seconds.
It marked the third time this season the Lions rewrote the school 4x4 record. This time the Lions’ bettered their previous record by 2.11 seconds to give Southeastern 140 team points to edge Texas-Arlington for the Lions’ first ever Southland Conference crown by 0.5 points.
“It was unbelievable,” head coach Sean Brady said. “Never in 100 years would I have dreamt that we would win a conference title like that. That was the greatest finish I’ve ever seen a Southeastern team put together. It’s a credit to our kids who could have folded up their tents on Friday night. Instead, the battled the whole way and beat a very good team in Texas-Arlington. UTA has a shot at being a top-25 team at the national meet this year, but our kids did everything they needed to do to get the win today.”
Southeastern totaled 39 points on Saturday to overcome a sluggish 15-point performance in the opening day on Friday and begin the final day of competition in first place with 54 points. However, the Lions’ grasp on first would prove to be tenuous as the top spot changed hands between Southeastern, UTA, Sam Houston State and Texas-San Antonio throughout the day.
In the end, the Lions’ depth proved critical as Southeastern totaled 86 points in 13 events on Sunday despite winning just two events.
“We have some elite level student-athletes that are going to be competing at the national championships in June,” Brady said. “But, those weren’t the kids that won it for us. Our coaching staff has preached all year long to our younger kids that every point at conference counts and everyone needs to step it up. They came through big today. We peaked at the right time and got personal records from a lot of these kids that got us a lot of unexpected points. They really represented Southeastern well this week.”
Freshman pole vaulter Kovey Simmons got the scoring started for Southeastern on Sunday. Simmons, who was making his first appearance since suffering a severe ankle sprain in the second meet of the outdoor season, tied his personal best mark by clearing 15-7 (4.75 m) to take fifth place and earn four points.
Junior thrower Adonson Shallow followed with his second All-SLC performance of the meet. After finishing second in the shot put on Saturday, Shallow took second in the discus with a throw of 188-10 (57.56 m) that finished just two feet shy of first place and netted the Lions eight more points.
In the triple jump, sophomore Michael Rheams earned All-SLC honors with a second-place leap of 50-0.75 (15.26 m) that earned eight points and senior Corey Billizone garnered two more points with a seventh-place jump of 48-8.25 (14.84 m).
The men’s 4x100 m relay team opened the running events with a fourth-place performance that picked up five more points thanks to a season-best time of 40.94.
Junior hurdler Damian Manning came up big in the 110 m hurdles as his first-place time of 14.13 earned ten points for the Lion cause and gave Manning a new personal best that was also the third-best time in school history.
Manning’s classmates Cory Roberts and Kernell Jupiter also helped the Lion cause in the 110 m hurdles as the duo finished fifth and sixth, respectively to add another seven points.
Grover and junior Rocky Caruth each turned in personal best times in the 100 m dash, clocking in at 10.53 and 10.68 to take fourth and seventh respectively to net seven more points. The Lions’ short sprint duo would return in the 200 m dash scoring another nine points as Grover took third and Caruth took sixth.
Wiltz made his first appearance of the day in the 400 m hurdles by taking second with a time of 52.05, the third-best time in school history. With Manning clocking in at 57.08 to take seventh, the Lions picked up 10 more points in the 400 m hurdles.
Down 7.5 points with two events to go, the Lions needed a strong showing in the 5,000 m run to stay in the meet, and sophomore distance runner Henry Rop delivered with his third All-SLC performance of the weekend. Rop, who took second in the 10,000 m dash on Friday and the 3,000 m steeplechase on Saturday with personal record times in both events, returned for the 5,000 m run on Sunday and took third with a time of 14:31.73, the fourth-best time in school history.
Rop’s performance brought Southeastern to within 1.5 points and set the stage for the Lions’ dramatic victory.
On the women’s side, the Lady Lions totaled 37 points on the weekend to take seventh place. Freshman Michelle Ogashi scored first for Southeastern with a seventh place finish in the triple jump.
The women’s 4x100 m relay team added three points with a sixth-place time of 46.78, senior Everlyne Matonyei took sixth in the 1500 m run to pick up three more points, sophomore Josalynn Burns added two points with a seventh-place time in the 100 m hurdles, senior Roseann Bell finished eighth in the 200 m dash to pick up a point, and Matonyei and sophomore Dorcus Kapkiai finished fourth and fifth respectively to give the Lady Lions nine points in the 5,000 m run.