Black college products were among the top eight finishers in five events in
the NCAA Div. I Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Eugene,
Oregon over the weekend. Finishing in the top eight wins points for the
participants' school on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring
system and confers upon them all-American status.
Southern long jumper Brian Johnson
was the first to garner points (six) for his school as he finished third
in the long jump on Thursday with a leap of 8.06 meters.
Norfolk State quartermiler Christopher
Brown also finished third in the 400 meter dash with a time of
45.79 seconds getting six points for the Spartans.
Prairie View A&M sprinter
Lewis Turner was the final scorer in an
individual event as he finished eighth in the 100 meter dash finals. Lewis then ran
one of the legs on the Panthers 4x100 relay team that placed fourth in that event.
He was joined by teammates Lewis Edmonson,
Tim Cherry and Larry Hamilton in running a time of 39.45s
in the event.
North Carolina A&T's team of
Titus Haywood, Gerald Wright,
Montay Wilds and Timothy Walls finished
right behind Prairie View in the 4x100 final with a time of 39.48s. The Aggies
had broken their own school record in the 4x100 with a time of 49.43s in the
semifinals.
Prairie View and Southern tied for 33rd in the team competition with
four other schools totalling six points. Norfolk State tied with nine others for 39th
with five points. NC A&T was tied with eight others for 48th place with four points.
The University of Tennessee nipped Texas Christian University 50-49, to win
the men's championship.
In a season full of accomplishments,
Johnson C. Smith University has one more to add to their distinguished list.
JCSU's athletic director Dr. Catherine
Wright won the CIAA Athletic Director of the Year Award at
the CIAA Awards Banquet in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 30.
"I was surprised and pleased by receiving the award," said Wright. "This
is a direct testament to the teamwork that has been established in our athletic
department and we're looking forward again to another outstanding year."
Wright has had a tremendous impact on the University as both an
academic administrator and an athletic administrator. A native of Durham, North
Carolina, Wright is a 1972 graduate of North
Carolina Central University with a Bachelor of Science degree in health education
and a Master's degree in health education from the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte. Dr. Wright received her Ph.D in health education from the
University of Oregon. While receiving her Post Doctorate degree, she completed
her fellowship in Salzburg, Austria. Dr. Wright became the first female
athletic director of JCSU on November 9, 1998. She has been instrumental
in taking the Golden Bull athletic program into the new millennium.
"Our coaching staff is doing a solid job of recruiting athletes
who are not only performing on the playing field, but more importantly in
the classroom," Wright said.
This season her Golden Bulls rewrote the history books. The
men's basketball team won their first-ever CIAA and South Atlantic
Regional Championships; the men's tennis team won their third consecutive
CIAA championship; and the Luv-A-Bulls Cheerleaders won the National
Black College Cheerleading Championship.
Dr. Wright continues to promote athletics as an integral part of
the educational process and looks forward to promoting the athletic
program this upcoming season on their new Sports and Recreation Complex.
