Deon Lendore and Annie Alexander were emphatic conference winners for their universities on the weekend. Lendore (Texas A&M) blazed to gold in the men's 400m finals at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas on Saturday, while Alexander (Tennessee) won her second SEC indoor title in the women's shot put on Saturday at the SEC Indoor Championships in Lexington, Kentucky. Lendore was first to the line in an impressive time of 46.33, which bettered his previous personal best of 46.76 which he set in topping the heats one day earlier. The former QRC quartermiler beat schoolmate Rick Babineaux for the gold (46.61) with defending champion Isaiah Gill (Texas Tech) taking third (46.89). Lendore also helped Texas A&M retain the men's 4X400m relay title (3:05:87). Baylor, with T&T's Zwede Hewitt in the line-up, took silver (3:07:27) for the third straight year.
Hewitt was sixth in the men's 200m finals in 21.36. Wayne Davis II (Texas A&M) was eighth in the men's hurdles in 8.30, much slower than his 7.84 in the heats. Texas topped the men's team standings with 140 points with Baylor in fourth (76) and Dellon Williams' Texas Tech in sixth (63). Alexander threw 17.06 to finish ahead of Keely Medeiros (Florida) 16.98 with another T&T athlete Hileen James (Georgia) grabbing third in a personal best of 15.56. Kyron Blaise (LSU) was sixth in the men's long jump with 7.41 metres while Kai Selvon (Auburn) advanced to the women's 60m and 200m finals after setting personal bests in both the heats of events. She clocked 7.25 seconds in topping the women's 60m heats and later returned to stop the clock at 23.37 when second in the 200m preliminaries. She improved her previous best of 7.30 and 23.52 set earlier this year. Jamol James (Tennessee) is into the men's 60m finals after finishing fifth fastest in the heats in 6.73. LSU's Shermund Allsop was 14th (6.85) and advanced to the medal round. In the 200m, James was 13th (21.58) and Allsop 17th (21.74). Both were eliminated.
Ashlee Smith (Mc Neese State) was second in the women's weight throws finals at the Southland Conference Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. Smith took the runner-up spot with her last effort of 18.21 to finish behind her team-mate La'Shantena Rounds (18.54). Smith was also fourth in the women's shot put finals (14.07m) while McNeese was fifth the women's team standings on 64 points. Kirlene Roberts (Central Michigan) was sixth (7.60) in the women's 60m finals at the Mid American Champs in Akron Ohio. In the heats she was third quickest also in 7.60. At the Mountain Pacific Championships in Seattle, Washington Shawn Fermin (Washington State) was seventh in the women's 200m finals (24.56) and eighth in the 400m finals (54.89) while Carissa Leacock (Iowa) was tenth in the women's long jump (5.76) and 12th in the triple jump (12.14) at the Big 10 Champs in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robert Collingwood (Southern Mississippi) finished tenth (14.75m) in the men's weight throw at the Conference US Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. Scarla Nero (Wichita State) was ninth in the women's 300m finals at the Missouri Valley Champs in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 10:05:35.
