record at Florida Relays

From Special Reports

"She finally did it!" exclaimed TSU jumps coach Chris Baptista as he watched Alisha Denson clear the bar on her third try at 5’10" at the Florida Relays in Gainesville this past Saturday.

Denson took one of the oldest records off of the TSU women’s list as her leap erased Contessa Woody’s 5’9" from Charles Oliver’s 1984 team as the top jump in TSU history. Competing in a field that included Olympian Tisha Waller (the eventual winner at 6’2"), Denson had two near misses at 6 feet and finished third overall in the invitational field.

"I have no doubt that she’ll jump feet before the season’s over," said Baptista.

Other noteworthy individual performances for the Trojans at one of the biggest meets in the United States included Amanda Mason’s fourth place in the javelin (133’9"), Joe Nelson’s second place in the collegiate division long jump (23’4"), Joe Clark’s seventh in the 400 meters (47.69), and Melissa Dailey’s ninth place in the Heptathlon (4577) which set a new TSU school record.

In the relays, the TSU men’s 4 x 200 team of Mike Finley, Robbie Strickland, Casey Strickland, and Joe Clark ran a 1:27.48, which earned them a sixth-place finish.

The Sprint Medley team of the two Strickland brothers, Clark and Josh Jackson clocked a 3:32.20 again good enough for sixth place.

In the Women’s Sprint Medley, Sharmeka Barnes, Dailey, Natalie Simmons and Edna Caraballo turned in a 4:10 which garnered them seventh place among the 17 teams.

One of the more thrilling races of the day came when TSU’s Michael Green, running unattached and red-shirting this season, finished second in a photo-finish behind the Korean National Champion, Kim Soonhyung in the 1500 meters. Green’s time of 3:48.14 was the second fastest time ever run by a Troy State athlete.

This week the Troy State track team travel to Starkville, Mississippi, for a triangular meet against Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech, after which they return from Spring Break to host the Troy-Nike Invitational on April eighth in Memorial Stadium at the Colley Track.