DANVILLE, Ky. — (RESULTS) For the second-straight week, Campbellsville outdoor track and field continued to shine. Both the men's and women's teams traveled to the Centre College Invitational, bringing home multiple NCCAA qualifiers.
The Tigers finished fourth of 16 and had six athletes qualify for seven events. The Lady Tigers were sixth of 16 teams and had five athletes qualify for six events. Bellarmine University won the meet on the women's side and host Centre College was the top men's team.
"I'm really proud of everyone," said CU coach Hilary Lakes. "We preformed really well as a team this weekend and had a bunch of really outstanding performances."
The distance runners stole the show on the men's side. Three Tigers won their respective events with Brett Pierce starting the day with a win in the 10,000-meter dash. Pierce's 32:55 qualified him for the NCCAA Championship and broke the event record time that was previously set in 2010 by Bellarmine's Ben Draper at 33:04.
Joey Hartlage followed suit with a time of 9:49 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Adam Sandidge won the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:39. Both times qualified them for the NCCAA.
The Tigers finished in second place in five other events. PJ Randles broke his own record (15.48), that was previously set in 2010, with a time of 15.27 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. That mark gave him a spot in the NCCAA along with Clayton Embry, who finished just behind Randles with a time of 15:74.
Demytreus Gipson was another runner-up, finishing second in the 100-meter dash. His time of 11.03 seconds was just behind Cole Green of Transylvania by .15 seconds. Gipson also placed second on the podium with a time of 22.32 in the 200-meter dash. Green once again knocked him off the top spot by just .12 seconds. Both times for Gipson qualified him for the NCCAA Championship.
CU also placed second in the 4x400-meter relay. Johannesburg Boulware, Silaf Harris, Jeremy Hamilton and Gipson ran a 3:28 race to finish behind Kentucky State's time of 3:22.
On the women's side, JaNaiqua Horne and Sarah Johnson were the top finishers for CU. Horne jumped her way into the NCCAA, placing third in the women's long jump, with a mark of 5.08 meters. Johnson ran a time of 12:10 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to place third and is also going to the NCCAA Championship.
Freshman Brianna Harman qualified for the NCCAA, while finishing third in javelin throw with a mark of 29.54-meters, just .30-meters behind first place. Lindsey Burd finished fifth in the women's shot put, with a mark of 11.36-meters, adding her to the list of NCCAA qualifiers.
Other times and marks that qualified for the NCCAA Championship:
JaNaiqua Horne, 5th in triple jump, 10.45m
JaNaiqua Horne, 8th in 100-meter dash, 12.99 seconds
Kelsey Feltner, 9th in 100-meter dash, 13.02 seconds
"Everyone is starting to come together as a team and work hard for a common goal," said Lakes. "I am really excited to see where we go these next couple weeks as we fine tune and get ready for conference."
Both the men's and women's teams will travel to Williamsburg, Ky. for the University of the Cumberland invite on April 11. CU will then travel back to Danville, Ky. for the Centre College Twilight races.
The Mid-South Conference Championship is scheduled for April 24-25 at Lindsey Wilson College.
