Friday Leads @MiamiTrack on Day 2 of ACCs
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Jumper John-Patrick Friday led the Miami men, while 11 Hurricane runners qualified for the finals in their respective races on an eventful second day at the 2015 ACC Indoor Championships.
“JP has been here for a few years, so for him to step up and be a leader is great,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “For him to score in these two events and to still have the triple jump, which is his best event, coming up is huge for the men’s team. We had a lot of our student-athletes make the finals. I am really excited about where we are after today and what we can potentially do tomorrow.”
Friday earned a bronze medal in the men’s high jump, clearing a personal-best 2.11m to set a new UM indoor record. The junior broke a nearly decade-old record, surpassing Elan Daviglas’ mark of 2.08m set in 2006.
“It feels great to medal and score for my team,” Friday said. “To get the school record only makes it more special for me. It’s great to start strong in the first of my three events and this gives me confidence heading into the long jump and triple jump.”
Friday finished tied for third place in the men’s high jump, picking up 5.5 points for Miami’s men. The junior also added four more points to the Miami men’s tally with a fifth place finish in the men’s long jump, clearing 7.40m. Freshman David Njoku placed sixth in the men’s high jump, clearing 2.05m and adding three points to the men’s team total.
“We did better than we expected,” Miami jumps coach Jerel Langely said. “JP hasn’t high jumped much this year, but he had a great practice this week and stepped up in competition. I thought he even had a little more left in him, so that’s encouraging for the future. And David scored points for us basically coming in straight from spring football practice, so it was great to see both of them score for our men’s team.”
Three Canes also earned spots in the 400m finals including ACC indoor 400m record holder Shakima Wimbley. The sophomore won Heat 5 of the women’s 400m preliminaries with a time of 54.02 seconds, while Kelsey Balkwill also earned a spot in Saturday’s final with her time of 54.61 seconds that won Heat 3 of the preliminaries. On the men’s side, Henri Delauze advanced to Saturday’s men’s 400m final with a time of 47.76 seconds.
“Kelsey making the final was awesome,” Deem said. “That was her goal and to see her do that on the same track where a year ago she rolled her ankle was big.”
Wimbley also earned a spot in the women’s 200m final, winning Heat 3 of the preliminaries with a time of 23.36 seconds – the fastest preliminary time among the 30 competitors. The sophomore has put herself in position to potentially score a lot of point for the Hurricane women on Saturday. On the men’s side, Jaalen Jones won Heat 2 of the 200m dash preliminaries with a time of 21.56 seconds, earning one of the eight spots in the men’s 200m final.
“I was happy to see Shakima put a good 200 together,” Deem said. “She didn’t need to run that fast, but she has been a little off the past couple of weeks and that race gave her a lot of confidence going into the final.”
The Hurricanes had three student-athletes advance to Saturday’s 60m hurdles final. Kayann Richards claimed a spot in the women’s final after winning Heat 3 with a time of 8.39 seconds, while Stefani Kerrison earned a spot in the final with a time of 8.48 seconds that was second to Richards in Heat 3. On the men’s side, Christian Cook ran the fastest preliminary time of the day and won Heat 1 with a time of 7.82 seconds to earn an automatic qualification into Saturday’s men’s 60m hurdles final.
Josh Johnson ran a personal-best time of 6.89 seconds in the men’s 60m preliminaries, earning one of eight spots in Saturday’s final.
Taneisha Cordell ran an indoor-best time of 2:08.50 in the women’s 800m preliminaries, finishing second in Heat 2. The senior earned the final spot in Saturday’s women’s 800m final.
“This is the key day,” Deem said. “You can’t put points on the board if you don’t get through this round. We got everyone I expected to get through and then added some others that were icing on the cake. There were a couple of disappointments today, but overall it was a great day.”
While Miami earned 11 spots in Saturday’s finals, several Canes ran noteworthy times but did not advance to the finals in their respective events.
Kayann Richards ran a personal-best 7.57 seconds, while Lateisha Philson posted a personal best 7.68 seconds. Ibrahim Dodo ran a personal-best time of 22.55 seconds in the men’s 200m preliminaries. Anthonia Moore ran an indoor-best time of 55.55 seconds in the 400m preliminaries. Sean Grossman ran a personal-best time in the men’s mile, finishing in 4:21.60.
“Anthonia Moore, even though she didn’t get to the final, ran a really good race and that will help us in the 4×4,” Deem said. “We had a lot of kids come in and have fun and put together good performances.”
Through seven events, Miami’s women are in seventh place with 16 points. The Hurricane men are in eighth place with 16.50 points through six events.
Saturday’s action opens at 10 a.m. with the women’s shot put and the running events begin at noon with the women’s mile final. The final day of the ACC Indoor Championships will be shown live via ESPN3, beginning at noon. There is no charge for admission to the 2015 ACC Indoor Championships.
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