2016 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships: Men's Preview
May 09, 2016 | Track & Field
BOILING SPRINGS — The Gardner-Webb men's track and field team heads to the 2016 Big South Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships as a squad on the rise, and with its eye set on a second-straight top-five finish after placing fifth a season ago.
Jordan Smith (Chesterfield, Va.) and A.J. White (Hurricane, W.Va.) lead the pack for the Runnin' Bulldogs, with both throwers expected to medal after combining for five top-five seedings entering the championships. White has improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the season, adding nearly five meters to his top discus mark from 2015 while posting PR's in both the hammer (52.06m) and discus (49.93m) in back-to-back weeks. The senior thrower currently sits 60 centimeters shy of tying the program-record of 50.53 meters in the discus throw.
Smith enters the championships within striking distance of history as well, trailing White by 1.03 meters in the discus while sitting less than a meter shy of the program record of 17.18 meters in the shot put. The Chesterfield, Virginia native posted PR's in both the shot put (16.40m) and discus (48.90m) at the Charlotte Invitational, and has hit at least 48 meters in the discus in each of the last three meets.
Freshman thrower Marcus Abraham (Charlotte, N.C.) is in the hunt for a spot on the podium in two events, entering the week seeded fourth in the shot put and seventh in the discus throw in the midst of an impressive rookie season. The Charlotte native posted a personal record of 46.82 meters in the discus at the Mountaineer Open after setting a new PR of 16.19 meters in the shot put at the Florida Relays in March.
Sophomore Quenton Jones (Moore, S.C.) and freshman Jalin Lawson (Fort Gaines, Ga.) are expected to make some noise in the long jump, entering the event seeded ninth and 11th, respectively, to pace a group of four Runnin' Bulldogs in the event. Jones posted a personal record of 7.03 meters at the Charlotte 49er Classic in March, while Lawson set a PR of 6.99 meters at the Charlotte Invitational last month. Lawson and Jones will also compete in the triple jump, in which they are seeded ninth and 10th, respectively.
Christopher Lile (Waynesville, N.C.) leads a talented group for the Runnin' Bulldogs on the track, and will compete in both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run on Wednesday and Thursday. Lile is seeded eighth in the steeplechase and 11th in the 5,000 with top season marks of 10:01.63 and 15:47.38, respectively.
Competition gets underway on Tuesday, May 10 at 12:30 pm with the women's discus throw, and will continue through Wednesday before concluding with the men's 4x400-meter relay at approximately 4:30 pm on Thursday, May 12. The championships are being hosted by Liberty University at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex in Lynchburg, Virginia. Live results will be available through Flash Results, Inc. throughout the championships, while Liberty will provide a live video feed - free of charge - through the Big South Network.
The full performance list for the championships, complete with event start times, can be found here.
