SWAC title on the minds of track & field

Southern track and field head coach Johnny Thomas said the meets his teams are participating in are preparing his team for the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship. Right now the team is going through trial and error, focusing on who can do what.
There are not many seniors on the team, but there are 36 freshmen, comprised of 24 women and 12 men. Thomas said this is the youngest team he has ever coached.
“We are using all kinds of combinations, (and ) trying to get chemistry so we can see who can help us,” Thomas said. “Right now we are doing ready meets, so by the time we go to the University of Houston, we will know exactly who we are going to run in the SWAC championship as long as there aren’t any injuries.”
The team has two more meets before going to the SWAC championship in February. The Jaguars will participate in the Run Sport All-Comers Meet in Houston and the Louisiana State University Twilight Meet.
“Right now, I would imagine our position in the SWAC would be our men should rank fifth and our women should rank third from the competitions we had,” Thomas said.
The Jaguars competed in the Tennessee State University Invitational in Nashville on Saturday. Junior Pamela Cockerham finished first in the final 55-meter dash, junior Monica Robinson finished first in the 55-meter hurdles preliminaries and finished second after senior Kaisha Weeks in the finals. Robinson also participated in several events placing third in women high jump and pole vault and fifth in long jump. Freshman Lauren Fisher, finishing second in the 200-meter dash, knew that Southern is where she wanted to continue her track career.
“I liked the program here,” Fisher said. “I ran track in high school. Now I have to practice some more and pick up my speed a little.”
For the men’s team, University of New Orleans summer transfer junior Robert Delmore placed first in the men 55-meter dash preliminaries and second in the finals. In the 800-meter run, junior Eric Henneghan placed third and senior Darnell Parker placed fourth.
Both teams placed second in the 4×200-meter relay and in the 4×400-meter relay; the men placed second and the women placed third. Freshmen Jovanni Jenkins placed second in the pole vault and freshmen Joshua Combs placed third in the long jump. Jenkins is the first pole vaulter Southern has seen in a while.
“Overall on a scale of one to 10, the team averages out to a six,” Thomas said. “We have good team recognition.”