BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Southeastern Louisiana sophomore Ashley Davis took down both the meet and school record in taking the shot put title at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships Thursday afternoon in the Birmingham CrossPlex.

    Davis recorded a mark of 54 feet, 6 inches on her fourth attempt, breaking the meet record of 52-08.25 meters set by Texas State's Abby Ruston in 2007. It also eclipsed the Lady Lion standard of 51-08.25 set by Jermisha Frazier at the 2015 Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational.

    Davis is the first Lady Lion to win a Southland championship since Frazier won the shot put and Ikea Kaufman the high jump in 2014.

    "Ashley Davis was just Ashley Davis again," Southeastern head coach Corey Mistretta said. "Very seldom are we very surprised about what she does. She had been a little bit down on the scoreboard from what people would expect that she would be doing this year, but (assistant) coach Amin (Nikfar) knew that she was close. We were just waiting for something to happen and she showed up today, for sure. She just shattered that conference record which had been standing there for 10 years. But that is what Ashley Davis does. She shows up at big-time meets and does big-time things.

    Senior Maverick Bowleg kept the Southeastern streak of 400-meter titles alive by capturing the event in a career-best 47.71 seconds in his final collegiate meet. He is the third straight Lion to win the 400, following Dontrell Lyons in 2016 and Andre Colebrook in '17.

    "He just continues to shine," Mistretta said. "He went out and ran a personal best and got on top of the podium for us."

    Freshman Kendesha Ingraham also broke a school record in finishing third in the 200 in 24.33, topping the 24.36 ran by Sharrona Williams at the 2016 Southland Championships.

    "That record had been there for a while and we've had some pretty fast girls come through our program, so for a freshman to come in and do that is pretty outstanding," Mistretta said.

    The Southeastern men finished eighth with 41 points while the Lady Lions were ninth with 38. Sam Houston State swept the titles with 128 and 123 points, respectively.

    The Lions and Lady Lions combined for 11 personal bests Thursday after setting 19 on Wednesday.

    "Which is just really good," Mistretta said. "The team is super young and we're just trying to improve and continue to get better in all areas, not just on the scoreboard but becoming better as a teammate and as an athlete and as a competitor. That's kind of where the focus is as we turn to outdoors. We just want to keep that track going on the same line."

    Senior Daijah Washington came in second in the 60 in a personal-best 7.55 seconds.

    Senior Treshanna Taylor broke her personal best 400-meter time by 1.62 seconds in taking fourth in 55.99. Junior Dekayta Alex was fifth in 56.09.

    Alex and Taylor later joined junior Milica Ozegovic and freshman Angel Collie on the 4x400 relay team which ran a season-best 3:47.55 for fifth.

    Sophomore Grant O'Callaghan beat his previous best 3,000 time by over four seconds in taking fourth in 8:22.68. O'Callaghan also placed fourth in the 5,000 on Wednesday and anchored the fifth-place distance medley relay.

    "He had a really good week for us with two fourth-place finishes," Mistretta said. "It's been a pretty long time since we had a distance runner that scored at a conference championship at that level.

    Junior Brian Donna opened the day with a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon with a personal-best 4,915 points, highlighted by third-place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles and 1,000.

    Freshman Jonathan Respress placed eighth in the 800 in 2:10.84.

    The 4x400 team of senior Martavius James, junior Tajh Lewis, Bowleg and senior Niall Thomas closed out the meet with an eighth-place, season-best time of 3:19.93.
    
    Southeastern will open the 2018 outdoor season on Friday, March 2, at the Tulane Early Bird Twilight in New Orleans.
 
Southland Conference Indoor Championships
Day 2 - Thursday
Men's Scores
1. Sam Houston St.      128
2. Stephen F. Austin     103
3. Northwestern St.      80
4. Lamar          76
5. McNeese     53
6. Central Arkansas      49
7. UIW 45.5
8. Southeastern La.    41
9. Abilene Christian      39
10. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi           20.5
11. Houston Baptist      20
12. New Orleans          6
 
Women's Scores
1. Sam Houston St.      123
2. Northwestern St.      95
3. Stephen F. Austin     84.5
4. Abilene Christian 70.5
5. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 69
6. UIW 56.5
7. Lamar          54
8. McNeese     38.5
9. Southeastern La.    38
T10. Houston Baptist    14
T10. Central Arkansas  14
12. Nicholls      6