Tracksters place second at Jackson Invitational

Tuesday, April 9, 2002

JACKSON - The Sikeston track and field team took second place in the 16-team Jackson Invitational on Saturday.

The Bulldogs finished with 91 points behind first place Poplar Bluff, which tallied 142 points. Perryville was third with 69 points.

"I really thought the competition was real stiff with 16 teams," said Sikeston head coach Jerry Dement. "There were some very nice performances on the boys side, but in our aspect I really thought we had an average day, and we still got second place. So that means if we step it up and continue to improve then we could really have something by the end of the season."

The Bulldogs competed without several of their top athletes due to ACT testing during the meet. But Dement offered no excuses.

"It took some points away from us but you've got to ask other kids to step up and take their place," said Dement. "Last year we had kids missing for the ACT test and we still won the meet. Poplar Bluff's a fine team, they're the best team in the area and right now we're probably the second best."

Sikeston was able to place in nearly every event on tap.

Kevin Keller placed first in the shot put with a throw of 51'10 1/2" and he took second in the discus with a toss of 139'3".

Andrew Lambert took first place in the high jump at 6'4" and took fifth in the long jump (20'5") and the triple jump (41'10 1/2").

Michael Colon also had a solid day, taking third in the long jump (20'8 1/2") and second in the triple jump (43'5 3/4"), which was just a 1/4 of an inch off the leader.

"I thought Mike Colon had a really nice day in the horizontal jumps," said Dement. "I thought our two shot putters Kevin Keller and Justin Lowes (2nd place, 50'7 1/2") really threw the shot well. DeVante Larry (300 hurdles, 4th place, 42.25) has continued to improve each week in the hurdles. We were able to place in just about every event."

Sikeston will compete in a dual meet at Cape Central on Thursday at 4 p.m.

NOTES - Perhaps the story of the meet was Jackson standout Mario Whitney's performance in the 100 meter dash. The Mizzou football signee ran a 10.2 second race, which is believed to be the fastest in Missouri history and the fastest high school time in the nation this year. The fastest time in high school history is 10.13 set in 1986 by Derrick Florence of Maryland.

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