Friday, February 18, 2011

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - ETSU and UNF concluded the first day of the 2011 Atlantic Sun Conference Men’s Indoor Track & Field Championship tied atop the standings with 41 points each. The Ospreys won three of the day’s five events while the Buccaneers scored points in all five events. Kennesaw State, the defending champions, currently sits in fifth place with 24 points.

The men’s 3,000-meter run came down to the final half lap with Will Pearce from UNF charging past defending champion and event record-holder Gilbert Kemboi to cross the finish line in 8:24.01 - 2.3 seconds ahead of Kemboi. Kemboi, the 2010 Most Outstanding Freshman Performer, led for majority of the race before the pass by Pearce on the backstretch.

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Read the Atlantic Sun Insider Column: Pearce's Will Results in Wins On and Off Track

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UNF took home in the men’s pole vault with freshman David Sheppard posting a height of 4.75m. Campbell posted the top three preliminary times in the men’s 60-meter dash with Diego Lawrence leading the way in 6.82 seconds. The Ospreys’ Distance Medley Relay team, anchored by Pearce, claimed a 10-second victory finishing in a time of 10:07.41.

The final events of the night, shot put and long jump, saw two A-Sun meet records fall as ETSU’s Jarrod Burton’s top toss of 17.47m bested his previous meet record of 16.89m, while Campbell’s Lawrence surpassed the mark of former Camel Sam Tilly, with his distance of 7.71m.

For Burton, it marked his second A-Sun shot put title after previously winning the event in 2009, while runner-up Kenneth Sugishita from USC Upstate also topped the previous A-Sun record with a toss of 17.05m. Lawrence became the fifth Campbell student-athlete to capture the long jump.

ETSU’s Jesse Aliaga-Jacob finished day one of the heptathlon with a155-point lead. He posted top point totals in the long jump and shot put with distances of 6.93m and 13.24m. Aliaga-Jacob set a new A-Sun meet record for the heptathlon long jump besting the previous mark by .01m. History is on Aliaga-Jacob’s side as four of the five winners in the heptathlon hail from ETSU - including the past two champions.

The conclusion of the heptathlon begins the final day of competition at 8:30 a.m. and the day concludes with the awards ceremony slated to start at 4:30 p.m.

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