Scheper Sets School Record

Indoor track and field season got into full stride this weekend in the United States, and University of South Carolina sophomore Jeannelle Scheper highlighted performances by St Lucian athletes. The 18-year-old St Joseph's Convent graduate hit a personal-best and school-record mark of 1.82m (5'11.5") at the Virginia Tech Invitational, takign first place in that event. The Gamecock sophomore broke Olympian Chelsea Hammond's eight-year old indoor mark of 5'10.5" and falls just three centimeters short of an NCAA Championship automatic qualifying mark. Levern Spencer's National Junior Record is 1.86m, which is also the shared CARIFTA under-20 record. Scheper has two years of CARIFTA eligibility.

"Jeannelle's record was our highlight on the girls side," South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. "It's early. We spent six weeks training since Thanksgiving, so for where we are, we know we have six weeks to get ready for the conference meet. We have a tough meet next week. This was an opener. You have to be really happy getting through. We don't have any notable injuries and we think we'll be OK. It will be a battle. It's a tough conference, but we have some really great kids working extremely hard."

There were good results from two sophomore sprinters on the weekend, both in the women's 60m. At the the Saluki Open in Carbondale, Ill., on the campus of Southern Illinois University, Missouri State's Pernell Joseph (Vieux Fort Comprehensive) followed up on her personal-best mark of 7.60 last week with times of 7.73 to win Heat 4 and 7.66 to finish fourth overall in the final. Meanwhile, at the University of Houston's Leonard Hilton Memorial, Jhorden Hunter of Texas San Antonio ran 7.61 to win Heat 2 and 7.59 to finish second in the B final, behind Virgin Islander and CARIFTA champion Allison Peter. The St Lucia 60m record is 7.55 seconds, by Michelle Baptiste (1999) and Jineill Vité (2004).

Makeba Alcide was the top field events performer for University of Arkansas. Another St Joseph's Convent graduate, Alcide cleared 1.71m (5'7.25") to finish sixth in women's High Jump at the Kentucky Invitational. The Razorback junior had a disappointing final in the 60m Hurdles, ending 14th in 8.95 after running 8.82 in the preliminaries, eighth overall, and within two hundredths of a second of her St Lucia National Record and personal-best time.

Image via http://www.gamecocksonline.com/