Day One Recap | Day Two Recap

COMMERCE, Texas – The Southeastern Louisiana University track & field team scored eight more medals, five the gold of conference champions, to close out the final day of the 2023 Southland Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Memorial Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
The Lions couldn't have asked for a much better start to the final day. In the day's first event, the women's discus, Kristian Jackson led the competition from her first throw to the last. Her first toss went 49.43 meters (162'2") to put her out front and was only bested by her final throw of the competition, which went 51.89 meters (170'3"), locking down the gold medal and 10 points in the overall competition.
 
Men's high jump was next, and again it was a Lion who came out on top as Slavko Stevic lived up to the reputation he had built as the Southland's best high jumper. He was the lone jumper to clear 2.15 meters (7'0.5"), doing so without knocking down the bar on any of his five jumps on his way to clinching the gold and 10 points in the team standings.
 
The next window of events featured men's discus and Southeastern was able to walk away with nine points from that event from two sources. Thomas Nedow finished fourth and earned five points with a toss of 50.93 meters (167'1") while Micah Miller had his best throw of the year, a launch of 46.40 meters (152'2") which was good for fifth right behind Nedow and four team points.
 
Women's high jump was included in the final window of field events, and it featured a dual for the top spot taking the top two competitors to their limits. In the end, Katrine Olsen ended up taking the silver and eight points for the Lady Lions by clearing 1.77 meters (5'9.75"), but she couldn't match her personal best of 1.80 meters (5'10.75") to keep the competition going.
 
With the track competitions getting underway, SLU kept adding points to their totals. The Lady Lions 4x100-meter relay team of Indya Jackson, Esther Nwanze, Katelyn Wallace, and Alexandra Cleveland finished their heat in 46.86 seconds, coming in seventh and earning two points for the team standings.
 
SLU's next big point-getter came in the men's 110-meter hurdles where Olu Ogunyemi ran a sub-14 second time for the first time in his collegiate career, earning a silver and eight points for Southeastern by crossing the line in a time of 13.98 seconds, just 0.01 ahead of the third-place finisher.
 
In the women's 400-meter dash, Indya Jackson crossed the line in fifth in 53.87 seconds for four points while Nwanze crossed in 55.90 seconds, good for seventh and two points.
 
The 400-meter dash was a good point-scoring event for the Lions men. Eugene Omalla broke the facility record as he ran away from the field to claim the gold in a time of 46.06 seconds, earning the Lions 10 points. Jaimie Omalla added five more points to that as he came in fourth, finishing in 47.57 seconds.
 
Southeastern's men kept the gold flowing in the 800-meter run as Javon-Taye Williams made his move down the final stretch and cruised in for the conference championship, stopping the clock in 1:50.67 to secure 10 points for the Lions. Noah Kiprotich made it a big scoring event for the team as his fifth-place finish in 1:53.03 added four more points to the SLU total.
 
The women's 400-meter hurdles saw the combination of Jackson and Nwanze both add points to the Lady Lions total. Jackson finished fifth in 1:02.09 for four points while Nwanze finished in 1:02.13 for sixth and three points.
 
Agerian Jackson ran to silver and eight points in the 400-meter hurdles by finishing in 51.21, missing the gold by just 0.02 seconds. Ogunyemi finished in seventh in 53.54 and added two more points to the team total.
 
In the men's 200-meter dash, Eugene Omalla added five points to the SLU score as he came in fourth, just missing a medal by 0.05 seconds, clocking in at 20.78 seconds.
 
The final events of the Southland Conference Championships were the 4x400-meter relays. On the women's side, the Lady Lions of Indya Jackson, Esther Nwanze, Jacqueline Thring, and Alexandra Cleveland won their heat going away, stopping the clock in 3:45.89. However, the second heat saw three teams better their time and SLU took five points to close out their team scoring.
 
Eugene Omalla, Jaimie Omalla, Omri Shiff, and Agerian Jackson went out to continue Southeastern's dominance of the 4x400-meter relay in the final event, and they did so in impressive fashion to close out the 2023 Southland Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, stopping the clock in the second heat at 3:06.48 which broke the facility record and gave Southeastern one last conference championship-winning performance, one last gold medal, and 10 more points to close out their scoring in the competition.
 
The Lady Lions ended the three-day competition with 61.5 points, finishing in eighth place in the overall standings. The Lions wrapped up the Southland Conference Championships with 100 total points and finished in fourth place overall.
 
Now the Lions wait for other conference championship meets to take place to see whose best performances will qualify them for the NCAA East Regional. The NCAA East Regional runs May 24^th-27^th in Jacksonville, Fla. at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.
 
PODIUM CLUB/S CLUB   
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the track and field program are encouraged to join the Podium Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Podium Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern track and field program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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