University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
A-Sun Outdoor Championships
Jacobs, Walls Lead Upstate after First Day of A-Sun Outdoor Championships
5/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Jacksonville, Fla. – Alexis Jacobs recorded her second straight All-Conference performance in the shot put and broke her own school record in the hammer throw, while Brittany Walls is currently first in the heptathlon as the USC Upstate track and field team completed day one of the A-Sun Outdoor Track & Field Championships at North Florida's Hodges Stadium.
The Upstate women head into the final day of competition on Saturday in fifth place with 17 points while the men are also fifth in the team standings.
Jacobs becomes the first Spartan female athlete in program history to win the outdoor shot put event after tying her conference-best throw of 13.95-meters on the final attempt. She held off Jacksonville's Samantha Turner by .01 meters as Turner posted a closing toss of 13.94-meters. Jacobs picks up her second consecutive All-Conference honor in the shot put after being named Second Team last season.
The senior thrower from Columbia, S.C. then eclipsed her own school record in the hammer throw to finish in fifth place. Jacobs compiled a personal-best throw of 48.03-meters, breaking her old mark of 45.36-meters set at last season's CCU Invitational. Overall, Jacobs tallied 14 points for the Upstate women on Friday.
Walls collected two first place finishes during the opening four events of the heptathlon and is positioned first out of 10 competitors with 3,226 points. She leads Jacksonville's Stormm Phillips by three points heading into tomorrow's final three events. Walls placed first in the high jump following a leap of 1.68-meters and shot put with a toss of 12.71-meters. She also set two personal-bests in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.74 and 200-meter dash after running a 25.83.
KeAndrea Ladson presently sits fifth overall in the heptathlon with 2,804 points after compiling two personal-best performances. She turned in a leap of 1.62-meters in the high jump and crossed the finish line in 26.38 for the 200-meter dash.
Ladson later surpassed her old personal-best in the long jump with a mark of 5.38-meters.
Brenicke Johnson and Semaj Tolliver both qualified for tomorrow's finals of the 100-meter dash after finishing second and sixth, respectively, in the preliminaries. Johnson had a time of 12.02 while Tolliver ran a 12.10 to place first and third in heat two.
Destinie Sykes set a new personal-best in the 100-meter hurdles as she logged a time of 15.16.
On the men's side, Alex Love had the top individual finish with an eighth place performance in the 10,000-meter run after his time of 33:37.45.
The final day of the A-Sun Outdoor Track & Field Championships starts at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the conclusion of the men's decathlon followed by the women's heptathlon at 10 a.m.
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