SU Men’s Indoor Track & Field Keep Title, Woman place Fourth in SWAC

The 2003 Indoor Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship started with the excitement of the field events that the Southern University indoor track and field team would score the majority of the points for the team on day one.
“I am more excited about the women’s performance than the men, because they came out and gave their all,’” said Johnny Thomas, SU men and women’s indoor track and field head coach and SWAC men’s coach of the year.
The shot put and the high jump were the first events of the day. The men went first, starting with junior Kenneth Johnson who progressed to the finals placing third with a 14.82-meter mark. 
In the women’s shot put, senior Nina Gray and junior Jacqueline Dix were able to score four points for the women placing third and eighth, respectively. Competing at the same time was junior high jumper Felicia Gray, leaping over the bar at 1.57m and scoring 1.50 points for the team. 
Out of four men, sophomore high jumper Michael McKinney and freshman high jumper Wade Curry made it to the finals, placing third and eighth, respectively, with a combined score of 6.50 points.
Junior Brian Johnson placed first in the long jump with a jump of 7.95m. Sophomore Henry Frazier placed second with a jump of 7.34 and Jeremy Pierre completed the total score of 22 by placing third. 
For the women, Gray came through for the women again this time, placing seventh in the long jump.  At 11 a.m., the women lined up for the longest race of the day, the 3000-meter run. 
The gun went off and the Lady Jaguars sophomores Erikka Thomas and Rayla Hunt ran 15 hard laps to the finish, placing fifth and sixth. 
Once again the gun went off and the fight for the lead was battled not once, but twice.  Junior Charles Moon fought his way to the head of the pack for the lead and following behind was freshmen Darnell Parker. Moon and Parker finished the 15 laps in third and fourth place. 
Following, was the exciting 55m dash preliminaries and Johnson was the top qualifier with the time of 6.25, a national automatic qualifying time followed by freshman Kelvin Buckley and sophomore Ezra Landry.  For the women, junior LaToya Johnson qualified with the fourth best time. 
Rolling around next was the 400m dash, which the men only took one person to the final, and that was junior Peppi Underwood. 
The 55m hurdle preliminaries were up to speed for both the men and women and Lady Jaguars Johnson and junior Francella Williams were the top two qualifiers.  Top senior hurdler Jamie McLendon was the top seed with time of 7.38 followed by teammates junior Jeffery Mack, senior Randy Williams and Frazier all qualified for the finals. 
In the 800m dash, the men and women only had one qualifier apiece for finals, senior Murray Guillory and Jovanni Anderson. The men’s 200m dash was a great success with four Jaguar men progressing to the finals. 
Johnson was the top seed with the time of 21.44.  The final event of the day was the men and women’s distance medley relay and that was a good way for Southern to end the day. The men placed first and the women placed second.  The Jaguars finished day one of the championship with the men in first place with 54.50 and the women in fifth with 22.50. 
Loud chanting from the Southern University Jaguars was all you could hear as the last race of the day was being run. 
“I was not able to win any championships (indoor track) while playing basketball…This means a lot to be able to be here and win,” said Johnson.
The Jaguar men had won another SWAC Indoor Championship and the women proved everyone wrong by placing fourth. 
SWAC was occupied by total domination for the men and hard work in small numbers for the women. 
Day two was such a success for the women because they brought over quality numbers to the finals and the two distance women did their jobs. 
“We only had 15 girls and people were saying that they would come in ninth place, but we handled our business and came in fourth, no one had as much heart as we did,” said LaToya Johnson.
Alabama State may have been champions again this year however, the Lady Jaguars placed higher than last year and almost doubled their points with 79.50 this year.  One of the ways the women were able to do so well was with Johnson, who placed fourth in the 55-meter and 200-meter and seventh in the 55-meter hurdles. 
Taking good care of the distance races were Hunt and Thomas placing fourth and fifth in the 1600-meter run. Thomas and Hunt placed fifth and sixth in the 5000-meter run. Things fell in place for the women in the field they did well scoring and placing for the team.  The 4×400-relay team ran one of their best times of the year.
The men came through with the same force as the women but with more numbers and talent.  It was pure domination with the score of 180.50 points to the second place Alcorn with 95.50. 
“This was my last Indoor SWAC (Championship), so I came out and gave it all I had and made the best of it because I may not get another chance,” said junior Chermond Thomas
The Jaguars did not take as many men to the finals as they would have liked to, but they use the spots they had well.  Johnson and Ezra Landry cleaned up in the 55m with first and second, and coming in fifth was Buckley. 
Johnson speeded to first place in the 200m, followed by teammates Chermond Thomas in third, Underwood in sixth and McLendon in seventh.  McLendon high-hurdled to first place in the 55-m hurdlers with Jaguars Frazier in third and Randy Williams in fourth.  Moon led the men in the distance events, placing first in the1600m with a time of 4:24.83. Also taking third and fifth place was Parker and Clary Reed.  Moon also placed second in the 5000m.  The men in the field events held down two-second place spots and in the triple jump Pierre placed and junior Arnold Sims placed in the weight throw. The Jaguars have put an end to their indoor track season and now look forward to outdoor track.