The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

A national record and an Olympic Games qualifying performance from high hurdler Pedrya Seymour at the Big Ten Conference Championships highlighted a weekend that saw Shaunae Miller continue her dominance at the IAAF Diamond League in Shanghai, China.

At the Ed Weir Stadium at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln on Sunday, Seymour was spectacular in her second-place finish for the University of Illinois in the women’s 100 metre hurdles in 12.92 seconds, just behind Cindy Ofili of Michigan, the winner in 12.91.

Not only did 20-year-old Seymour become the first Bahamian female hurdler to dip under the 13-second mark, but she also erased the previous national record of 13.00 that is shared by the injured Devynne Charlton and Adanaca Brown that they both set last year.

And in the process Seymour, who advanced to the final on Saturday with her second place in 13.17 behind Ofili’s fastest time of 13.00, surpassed the qualifying standard of 13.00 for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August. She qualified for her first major senior national team when she competed at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in March.

Seymour, a St Anne’s High School graduate now in her junior year at Illinois, came into the meet with a personal best of 13.17. Her second place in the final enabled Illinois to finish 13th with 18.5 points.

“Pedrya, the work and the development she’s made this year, she’s put our programme in the spotlight,” said Illinois’ head coach Ron Garner.

“She’s demonstrated that Illinois’ success in the sprints and hurdles is not just in the past, but it’s going to be part of the future. And, I’m very proud of her and associate head coach Randy Gillon for their work this year.”

Charlton has already pulled out of the games as a result of a season ending injury that prevented her from competing in the meet in her junior year for Purdue University. She was expected to go head-to-head with Seymour in Illinois.

Instead, Charlton’s Purdue junior team-mate Carmeisha Cox had a hectic day.

Cox started the day by running the second leg for the Boilermakers as they clinched the victory in the women’s 4 x 1200m relay in 43.91, while Seymour led off for Illinois as they came in fifth in 44.56 and Danielle Gibson anchored Penn State to ninth in 46.93.

Individually, Cox secured a pair of fourth places in the sprints.

She got started in the 100m, running 11.58 in a race that saw Gabrielle Farquharson, a senior at Rutgers, win in 11.32 to match the Olympic qualifying time. Cox had the third fastest qualifying time of 11.43.

She came back in the 200m and did 23.26 for another fourth. She had the fifth best qualifying time of 23.43 on Saturday. Briana Guillory, a freshman at Iowa, won the final in 22.95.

Cox completed her duties on the second leg of the Boilermakers women’s 4 x 400m relay team as they got third place in 3:32.05 as they ended up clinching fourth place in the final women’s standings with 87 points.

Keanu Pennerman, who didn’t advance in the men’s 100m on Saturday when he ran 10.59 for 20th place, anchored the Boilermakers men’s 4 x 100m relay team to a third place finish in 40.03.

Kinard Rolle, a sophomore at Purdue, didn’t advance out of the men’s 400m on Saturday after he placed 18th overall in 47.96.

But he helped the Big 10 closed out the meet by running the third leg for Purdue, who came in fifth in the men’s 4 x 400m relay in 3:07.95. The Boilermakers ended up fourth place in the men’s standings with 93 points.

Also at the meet, Kaiwan Culmer popped a best leap of 16.04m (53-4 1/2) for third place on his fifth attempt. Brian Leap, a senior at Penn State, was the winner with 16.27m (53-4 ½) on his fourth attempt. Anaquan Peterson, a junior at Purdue, was second with 16.24m (53-3 1/2) on his fifth jump as well.

Nebraska won the men’s title with 140.50.

And Danielle Gibson picked up a second place in the women’s triple jump with her best leap of 13.04m (42-9 1/2) on her fifth attempt. The Penn State junior trailed Tierra Williams, a junior at Nebraska, with her best of 13.56m (44-6) on her final jump.

On Saturday, Gibson had to settle for tenth place in the women’s long jump with a best of 5.79m (19-0) on her first attempt. Williams picked up her first victory when she soared 6.50m (21-4). Penn State women were tenth with 47.5.

At the SEC Championships at the Sam Bailey Track in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Teray Smith, competing for Auburn University, was ninth in the men’s 100m in 10.37. He qualified with the ninth fastest time of 10.46. Smith, in his senior year, anchored the Tigers men’s 4 x 100m relay team to a fifth place in 39.21. Auburn finished 13th in the men’s team standings with 15 points.

Also, Jenae Ambrose ran the second leg for Auburn as their women’s 4 x 100m team clocked 44.71 for ninth place. Ambrose was 26th overall in the 100m preliminaries in 11.85. Auburn got 10th in the team standings with 37 points.

At the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the Lowdon Track in Fort Worth, Texas, Elroy McBride anchored Texas Tech to a fourth place in the men’s 4 x 400m relay in 3:05.18. The senior athlete didn’t compete in any individual event.

Miller, unbeaten so far this year in the 100, 200, 400 and 800m, put together a strong race as she got out ahead of the pack through the first 200m. She eased up a bit coming of the final curve and then kicked into another gear as she brought it home a strong finish in ahead of her rivals. It was her second 400m for the year after she won the Chris Brown Invitational with a world leading time of 49.69 in April. She was coming of her wind-aided 200m win at the Jamaican Invitational in Kingston, Jamaica last week in 22.14.

Meanwhile, Jeffery Gibson, coming of his victory at the Jamaican Invitational in 48.96 last weekend, had to settle for third place in the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.11. The race was won by American Michael Tinsley in a season’s best of 48.0. Patryk Dobek of Poland was second in 49.01, a season’s best as well.

“I felt that I could’ve done much better,” Gibson told The Tribune. “I wanted to do much better. In fact, after the race, looking at the time, I was upset with myself. My start or my first 200m wasn’t as aggressive as it had been in Jamaica and I understand why that was the case. After looking at my position in the race I did a bit of over striding at hurdles 7 through 9. That really took me from advancing the way I wanted to going on to the home stretch.”

As he look ahead to the rest of the season, Gibson said h have to work on is getting or more aggressive the first 200m of the race, “which is essential to putting myself in a nice position to finish home strong. I also need fix my technique for hurdles 7-9 and get my steps right. It’s all about rhythm and being on it.” He hope to correct those mistakes when he compete again on May 19 in Taipei Taiwan.