2014 Peach Belt Conference Championshp Results

By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – They were not to be denied.

Thanks to an overwhelming performance on the final day of the 2014 Peach Belt Conference Track and Field Championships on Saturday at Barron Stadium, the Shorter men's track team gave the university its first-ever NCAA conference title when the Hawks rolled up 204 points to dethrone Alabama-Huntsville, the defending champion.

"They knew they had to stay focused," Shorter Director of Track Scott Byrd said about the Hawks, who were in fourth place when they started the final day and went on to capture the championship thanks to six first place performances – two coming from Kirk Wilson when he dominated the 100 and 200 – and in six events had two or more athletes place for points.

"We're always a third-day team the way the meets are structured. They stayed composed as they've done all year," Byrd said about the team that won this year's National Christian College Athletic Association national indoor championship.

The Lady Hawks, who gave Shorter a sweep of the NCCAA national indoor crowns, turned in a gutsy performance at the PBC championship despite having only 16 athletes suit up for the meet as they also came back after starting the last day in third place, eventually took the lead with two events to go but wound up having to settle as the conference's runner-up to the Alabama-Huntsville women, who defended its title.

"What a great effort," Byrd said about the Lady Hawks, who compiled 118 points Saturday to finished the event with 173 points, a mere 12.5 points behind UAH. "We knew that it would be tough for us, but I can't say enough about how they kept fighting."

Wilson, however, certainly stole the show among the men at the meet as he wound up as the top male point performer in track after winning the two sprints – in the 100 he was posted a time of 10.57 seconds and had a 20.69 mark in the 200 – and was a member of the Hawks' winning 4x100 relay team on Friday.

But Wilson was not alone in the sprints as teammates Treshunn Miliner took third place and Bradley Moon was fourth in the 100, and in the 200 Hawks Malik Fair and Randall Dameron notched third and fifth places, respectively.

The 400 finals witnessed the biggest display of depth as Fair won the event in 49.04, Gregory Roachford, Jr. was third, Dameron fourth and Cole Rice fifth, while Jihad Ragge added yet another first place for the Hawks as he won the 800 in 1:52.19.

And as icing of the PBC title cake, the Hawks won the final event of the meet as the quartet of Rice, Dameron, Roachford and Fair combined to claim the 4x400 relay crown in 3:11.37.

The two hurdle events had a clear Shorter presence as well as Tamario Evans won the 110 hurdles in 15.63, while in the 400 hurdles the top spot went to Wake Roberds won in 55.15, Evans was second, Kedemah Howard took fifth place and Ryan Moore sixth.

Two Hawks gave the team even more points as Josiah Jenkins was third in 1500 and Jordan Cross securing a second in the 5,000.

In the field, Sadrac Cherfils took second and Howard was fourth in the triple jump, and rounding out Shorter's point assault was Daniel Alexis, who finished third in the shot put, and Marshall Rawson, who was sixth in the javelin.

The Lady Hawks still came away with plenty of hardware in their outing.

In the 200, the event that put Shorter briefly into the lead, Lakeisha Spikes was the tip of a five-edged spear for the team, as she sprinted to the win in 23.92 and saw teammates Ashley Ballard, Alexis Smith, Ayana Walker and Giselle Webb finish together in third through sixth places, respectively.

The Lady Hawks made it a 1-2 sweep in the 400 as Walker won in 55.17 and Ballard was second, and in their final event the 4x400 relay squad of Walker, Ballard, Webb and Spikes combined to claim the gold in 3:48.27.

Spikes added a second place in the 100, which also resulted in a sixth place from Smith and a seventh from Webb; Destiny Jenkins second and Leah Sikorski turned in respective second and fourth places in the 800; Kryslynn Davidson was third and Zandra Lake fourth in the 100 hurdles; Davidson was third in the 400 hurdles; and in the 5,000 Shea Spicher was fifth and Destiny seventh.

Zandra Lake and Cynia Clark capped the scoring for the Lady Hawks in the field, with Lake finishing second in the triple jump and Clark taking fourth in the shot put.

Also, Lady Hawk Hannah Turner was named as the PBC Elite 15 Women's Award winner for having the highest cumulative grade point average among track athletes in the conference.

Next weekend, the Hawks will take a small but impressive group of 10 athletes to Philadelphia to compete in the prestigious Penn Relays, and on May 1-3 Shorter's men and women will be back at Barron focused on another national title sweep when for the first time the NCCAA National Outdoor Championships are held in Rome.