Hazel-Ann Regis Neisha B.Thomas Bruce Swan Randy Lewis
Sunday April13, 3:45 PM
Hazel-Ann smashes national 400m record
by Michael Bascombe
Top local quarter-miler, Hazel-Ann Regis ran the fastest 400m of her life and smashed her one-year national record.
Regis clocked 51.54 seconds on Saturday to win the 400m at the Alumni Track and Field Meet of Louisiana State University (LSU).
In a meet which featured three Grenadians, including Neisha Bernard-Thomas (LSU) and former LSU and All-American 400m champion Alleyne Francique, Regis chipped away on the 51.86s set last May in Odessa, Texas.
Bernard-Thomas shifted from the 800m and competed in the more competitive 400m but finished seventh among the 30 competitors. Her time is a regional qualifier.
But the interesting revelation of the Alumni meet was Francique competing in the 200m and finishing fourth in 21.27s.
Francique opted for the half lap as a means of testing his speed for the 400m.
Meantime, Wichita State University dominated their only home meet
of the season, the 55th Annual K.T. Woodman on Saturday, April 12, with the men's
team winning the meet. The men were almost 70 points in front of second place
Nebraska, while the women placed third, just behind Nebraska and Iowa. Overall,
11 Shockers won their respective events, 32 new personal bests were set, seven
qualified for the NCAA regional meet and one K.T. Woodman meet record was set.
Grenada's Bruce Swan posted a personal best in the 100m as he clipped the deuce
at the meet. Swan clockd 10.34s in winning the 100m and 20.93s to win the 200m.
The former McDonald College athlete also competed in the 4x100 and
4x400-metre relays for Wichita.
The men's 4X100-meter relay team, which set the school record at last weekends
Texas Relays, set the meet record Saturday, with a first place time of 40.27. The
team of Michael Reckley, Jesse Grove, Bruce Swan and Shannon Armstrong was
three-hundredths of a second off their school record time. The men's 4X400-meter
relay team, consisting of Swan, Paul Speer, Jens Lukoschat and Justin Chandler,
took second with a regional qualifying time of 3:09.09. Swan had a career best
46.7 split in that event.
Another Grenadian, Randy Lewis, competing in the triple and long jumps, had two of his biggest marks
of the season. In the triple jump, he won the event with a qualifying mark of
52-7 1/2, while he took second in the long jump at 23-11 1/2.
Lewis, a former champion at the St. Andrew's Anglican Secondary School, has qualified for the regional championship later this year.
The Shockers travel to Lawrence, Kansas, April 16-19, for the KU Relays and Multi-Event competition.
Also on the track this weekend was for Sean Lambert of the University of Tennessee.
Lambert, competing in the Sea Ray Relays, was fourth in the 100m (10.50) and sixth in the 200m (21.12).