AUSTIN, Texas – Southeastern Louisiana sophomore pole vaulter Devin King had to wait to near the end of the day to compete in the 2016 Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on Saturday but he certainly made it worth the wait.
   
    King cleared a school-record 18 feet, 8.75 inches (5.70 meters) to capture first in the event, a mark that also qualified the Kentwood, Louisiana native for the USATF Olympic Trials for this summer's Olympic Games in Rio Janeiro, Brazil.
   
    "I just knew I had made my coaches and my family proud," King said of his first thoughts after the vault.            King was perfect through his record-breaking height, clearing 5.20, 5.35, 5.50 and 5.60 meters on his first attempts before passing at 5.65. After clearing 5.70 on his first try, King missed on three attempts at 5.80.
   
    "He obviously had the best day he ever had," Southeastern head coach Sean Brady said. "It was pretty cool because the whole meet was finished. They were the center of attention and it was just a nice set-up situation to jump high and Devin certainly took advantage of that."
   
    "I was a little leery at first but once I started jumping, I felt better and better so the wait really didn't affect me at all," King added.
   
    King broke his own school record in the pole vault for the sixth time in 2016, eclipsing the latest mark of 18-1 set at the Tulane Twilight Invite on March 4. That was also the last meet King had competed in.
   
    "Leading up to it, I had some pretty good practices and had been jumping at pretty high bars," King said. "Coming into the Texas Relays, I was focused and just basically put what I do in practice into the meet and it ended up working."
   
    Southeastern had another highlight earlier in the day at the Texas State Bobcat Relays in San Marcos as the Lady Lions' 4x400-meter relay team of freshmen Dekayta Alex and Ariane Williams, sophomore Lekesha Jelks and junior Domonique White won in a season-best 3 minutes, 44.17 seconds.
   
    The Lions' 4x100 relay of junior Shadrack Adu-Gyamfi, senior Raheem Brown, junior Deandre Henderson and senior Kadarius Williams took third in 41.03 seconds. Oklahoma State won in 40.64.
   
    Senior Sharon Ann Ourso finished fifth in the pole vault at 12-5.
   
    All eight runners for Southeastern in the 200 set personal-best times. For the men, Brown came in seventh in 21.15, Henderson in 15^th in 21.44, junior Maverick Bowleg 17^th in 21.51, junior Dwayne Woodard 28^th in 21.90 and Adu-Gyamfi 53^rd in 22.59. On the women's side, junior Kaelynn Smith was 13^th in 24.39, freshman Aareion Jackson 22^nd in 24.84 and freshman Jaslyn Bowman 27^th in 25.02.
   
    Southeastern senior Collin Rowland, competing unattached, won the javelin with a throw of 214-02.
   
    Back at the Texas Relays, Lady Lion senior Jermisha Frazier took ninth in her section of the discus with a throw of 144-11. Frazier had opened the weekend for Southeastern with a second-place finish in the hammer throw on Thursday.
   
    "It started off great with Jermisha and ended up just about perfect with Devin in the pole vault," Brady said of the weekend.
   
    Southeastern will be back in action Saturday at the McNeese State Invitational in Lake Charles.