From: L to R) Richard Harkness, Jamille Callum, Winston Brown, Leford Green, Andre Collins, and Akino Ming (not pictured) will compete for outdoor All-American honors during the NCAA DII Championships. All but Ming earned indoor honors
Results
Atlanta, GA - The Johnson C. Smith University men's track and field team competed in the 110m hurdles, 400m, 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay at the Georgia Tech Invitational held on Griffin Track. The relay quartet was in dominant form.
The freshman trio of
Winston Brown (St. Andrew, Jamaica),
Akino Ming (Portland, Jamaica), and
Jamille Callum (Orleans, MA) teamed with junior
Leford Green (St. Catherine, Jamaica) to obliterate the school's 4x400m relay record, which they set at the 2010 Penn Relays. The Golden Bulls stopped the clock at 3:06.10 to turn back Division I powerhouses and win the event. They won against competition the likes of Florida State University, Alabama State University and UNC-Charlotte.
In the 110m hurdles, sophomore
Andre Collins (14.67) was .37 seconds off his season best and personal best placing seventh in his preliminary heat. In the 400m, Ming carved .80 off his previous season best to earn a new PB of 46.34 seconds. The time earned him fourth place in the nation and an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championships. Just five minutes later Brown stormed to a new PB (47.64) in the same event. The time is a provisional qualifier for the event and ranks #24 in the nation.
Leford Green performed extremely well in the 400m hurdles. Green had near flawless execution to shatter his existing school record of 50.29 done at the 2010 Penn Relays. He sped to 49.46 seconds (PB) to remain at the top of the national rankings. Green's time is now the second best collegiate time in the nation across all divisions and ranks him at #18 in the world in the event.
Head track and field coach
Lennox Graham was pleased with the performance of the team in their final meet prior to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship. “Both the men's and women's teams had pretty good tune up performances,” said Graham. “We were mentally ready and were propelled by the support of our JCSU alumni from the Atlanta Chapter who came out on both days to support our team. It was a great feeling of love and support and the teams really appreciated the outpouring of love from our alums.”
The meet was the final one before the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships scheduled for May 27-29, 2010 at the Irwin Belk Complex. The JCSU men's team is currently the #10 ranked team in the nation.
Winston Brown,
Jamille Callum,
Andre Collins,
Leford Green,
Richard Harkness, and
Akino Ming will all represent Johnson C. Smith on the men's side in the NCAA DII Championships.
