BOSTON, Mass. – Highlighted by a school-record by
Andrew Betton and several individual event champions, the Coppin State men's track & field team had an impressive weekend in Beantown at Harvard's Crimson Elite and the BU Scarlet & White Invite.
At the two-day Crimson Elite, Betton took second in the heptathlon, scoring a 5,114 points to shatter
Brandon Miles' old school-record of 4,389 from February 12, 2009. Betton opened the event with a 7.19 in the 60m for 816 points. He followed with a personal record of 6.69m (21'11.5") in the long jump for 741 points. Following the shot put, he closed the opening day by clearing 2.04m (6' 8.25") in the high jump for 840 points which also ranks second in the MEAC this season.
Betton opened day two with a personal record of 8.48 in the 60m hurdles for 865 points. He then cleared 4.00m (13' 1.5") in the pole vault for 617 points and closed the event by clocking a 2:49.03 in the 1,000m for 776 points. Betton's 5,114 points is the most by any MEAC athlete since 2017 and he's the only one to break the 5,000-point mark since then as well.
Jayeed Norbal (800m),
Jabari Higgs-Salaam (long jump) and
Oluwamumisorire Amori (triple jump) won their respective sections as well. Norbal breezed to victory in the 800m in 1:55.98, besting the nearest competitor by two seconds. Higgs-Salaam leaped 6.98m (22' 11") in the long jump and Amori traveled 6.17m (44' 4.25") in the triple jump. In his season debut, Amori also covered 6.17m (20' 3") in the long jump.
Jeff Hammond also made his season debut, taking third in the long jump invitational with a distance of 7.52m (24' 8.25). His jump currently leads the MEAC and ranks in the top 50 nationally.
Jaidyn Brown also sailed over 1.75m (5' 8.75") in the high jump.
On the track,
Solomon Hammond took fifth in the 60m dash in 6.71, followed by
Carl Drakes in 6.89 and
Cole Schlotterbeck in 6.96.
Abdul Razak finished 10
th in the 400m (49.16) and
Humed Nura placed eighth in the 3,000m in 9:07.16.
On Saturday at the Scarlet & White Invitational, Drakes took third in the 200m dash in 21.25, narrowly besting
Solomon Hammond's 21.35 which was good for sixth overall. Schlotterbeck finished in 21.69 while Razak clocked a 22.13.
In the 400m dash,
Jarrett Gentles placed seventh in 47.59 with
Daniel Cunningham clocking a 49.41.
Defending MEAC Champion
Asa Francis covered the 800m in 1:51.57 along with
Etiam Torgbenu clocking a 1:57.19.
Closing out the weekend was the 4x400m of Razak, Drakes, Cunningham and Gentles who took third in a season-best time of 3:11.35.
On the women's side,
Gifty Oku and
Halutie Hor advanced to the finals of the 60m dash at Harvard and took seventh and eighth, respectively, in times of 7.61 and 7.63. Hor ran a 7.58 in the prelims with Oku clocking a 7.62.
Serena Harrison (7.77) and
Kyah La Fortune also competed and ran times of 7.77 and 7.81.
At Boston, Hor finished the 200m dash in 24.85, followed by Harrison in 25.20 and Oku in 25.37. Harrison's time was good for second place in her section.
La Fortune finished the 400m dash in 57.09 and the quartet of her, Hor, Oku and Harrison ran the 4x400m in 3:55.09.
Coppin State will compete at the MEAC Indoor Championships on February 23-24, held at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
