Two Track And Field Members Will Represent USA At NCAA National Championships
Kaitlyn Beans and Renaldo Frechou look to make Jaguar history for the Track and Field teams in their first seasons donning the Jaguar uniforms.
They will travel to Eugene, Oregon this week to compete in the NCAA Division I National Championships with an opportunity to become All-Americans.
Beans is the first individual in school history of the men’s or women’s program to qualify for the national finals in any of the four jumping events: triple jump, long jump, high jump or pole vault. She earned her berth by placing seventh in the women’s triple jump at the East Region Preliminary Championships recently. She is the first-ever Jaguar freshman to advance to the national event.
But to make the story more facinating, Beans never competed in the triple jump before joining the Jaguar team. She was a three-sport start at Brewbaker Technology High School in Montgomery, Alabama.
Her performance in postseason competition has been quite remarkable as she earned the gold medal in the Sun Belt Conference Championships with a jump of 13.19m and set a new school record by more than four-tenths of a meter and topped her personal best by more than seven-tenths of a meter.
Frechou, a sophomore from Paarl, South Africa, set all-time Jaguar records in the men’s hammer throw in his first meet of his Jaguar career at the Jaguar Opener in March. He became the first Jaguar to throw over the 60-meter mark. He would break his own record five more times over the course of the season by routinely improving his marks. He tossed a 64.36m at the regional preliminaries and never finished outside of the top five until the regional competition.
They look to join an elite club of five individuals who have earned All-American honors at South Alabama. David Kimani (2000), Tonny Okello (2006, ’07) and Vincent Rono (2006, ’07) for the men and Adjoke Odumosu (2007) and Lindsay Schwartz (2011, ’12) for the women’s team. If they finish among the top eight in their respective events then they could add their names to that list.
The competition will be held June 11-14 in Eugene, Oregon.
Nine Jaguars Qualify For NCAA Track And Field Preliminaries
South Alabama have nine student-athletes from the men’s and women’s track and field team that have qualified to compete in 10 different events at the NCAA Division I East Region Preliminary Championship.
Five members from the men’s team have an opportunity to compete. Freshman Renaldo Frechou and senior Adam Patterson both qualified for the hammer throw. Connor Smith qualified for the pole vault for the second consecutive season. Jan-Louw Kotze qualified for the discus. Patrick Rohr qualified for the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Noelle Jones qualified in both the women’s high jump and javelin, this is the third time in her career that the senior has qualified in the javelin after doing so in 2011 and 2012. Fellow seniors Leah Hixon and Bobbie Williams will make their third consecutive appearance in the javelin and hammer throw preliminaries respectively. Freshman Kaitlyn Beans will round out the Jaguar squad after qualifying for the triple jump.
The NCAA Division I East Region Preliminary Championships will be held at the University of North FLorida’s Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, FL on May 29-31.
Track And FIeld SBC Championship Results
The South Alabama Men’s and Women’s track and field teams finished third and fifth respectively in the Sun Belt Conference Championships in San Marcos, Texas over the weekend.
The men’s team gathered 132 points finishing behind first-place UT-Arlington (145 points) and runner-up Western Kentucky (138 points). This seasons finish was a two-place, 52.5 point improvement from last season’s finish in the championships.
The women earned 87.5 points with first place Western Kentucky finishing with 173 points.
Jan-Louw Kotze defended his men’s discus title with a 56.20m throw on his fourth try, which was over three meters longer than the next-closest measure in the 19-man field and earned 10 points for the team.
Freshman Michael Pienaar earned All-Conference honors Friday in the 10,000 meter run and followed that up with two more on Sunday with first place in the 1,500 meter run with a time of 3:49.93.
Freshman Kaitlyn Beans finished first place with All-Conference honors in the women’s triple jump with a 13.19m jump on her fourth attempt which set a new Jaguar record and the top jump of the conference this season. She improved on her personal best by more than seven-tenths of a meter.
A total of six Jaguar student-athletes earned conference championships on the weekend with Leah Hixon in Women’s Javelin, Renaldo Frechou in men’s hammer throw, and Noelle Jones’ heptathlon.
Connor Smith earned All-Conference honors for the second-consecutive season with a 5.02m pole vault to earn runner-up in the event.
Justin Housley earned All-Conference honors in the 800-meter run where he finished third with a time of 1:55.39.
Ravaughn Pope earned All-Conference honors after finishing third in the 110-meter hurdles and setting a person record with a time of 14.17 seconds, the second fastest time in Jaguar history.
In total, the Jaguars had 18 All-Conference performances with contributions from 17 different student-athletes, broke two school records and also broke a pair of conference-championship-meet records.
Jaguar Student-Athletes Honored At 5th Annual Pete Tolbert Night Of Champions
Several student-athletes were honored during the Fifth Annual Pete Tolbert Night of Champions, the athletic department’s event to honor the achievements of nearly 400 individuals on Thursday evening.
Junior pitcher Farish Beard of Fairhope, Alabama and senior quarterback Ross Metheny of Stephens City, Virginia were name the female and male Student-Athletes of the Year. This honors the most outstanding individuals based on scholarship, athletic ability and citizenship.
Along with Beard, Hannah Campbell and Kaitlyn Griffith were also honored from the softball team. Metheny was joined by teammates Trey Fetner, Bryson James and Alex Page from the football team. Noelle Jones, Garrett Schumacher and Derek Westbrook were honored from the Track and Field teams.
Several others were honored including just to name a few: Caroline Beebe, Mechell Daniel, Nini Rabsatt-Smith, Sharmyn Wall, Matt Bolger, Brandon Bridge, Robby Campbell, Michelena D’Alonzo and Kristin Parry.
Beard has recorded better than a 3.2 GPA in two-plus years at USA. This season she has a 18-5 record, a 0.99 ERA, 174 strikeouts in 127.1 innings and ranks in the top 20 nationally in four statistical categories.
Metheny has a 4.0 GPA and is working on his master’s degree in educational leadership. Last season he led the Sun Belt Conferecne in total offense per game with 269 yards, ranked in the top 10 in the conference in three other categories and finished in the top 50 nationally in total offense, pass efficiency rating, and passing yards. He was also selected to the second-team All-SBC team.
A full rundown off all the awards and their recipients can be found here.
Also, 56 current and former student-athletes were recognized as they will graduate at the end of the semester.
Congratulations Jaguars!
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
South Alabama will host Louisiana-Monroe this weekend for a three-game Sun Belt series at Eddie Stanky Field. They will get underway tonight at 6:30pm with Locke St. John (4-1) taking the mound for the Jaguars in his 11th start of the season. Payton Coddou (0-2) will make only his third start of the season for the Warhawks.
Game two will start at 6:30pm on Saturday with Kevin Hill (2-5) making his ninth start of the season. Then Hunter Soleymani (0-2) will get the start in the series finale on Sunday.
USA is in the midst of a three game losing streak as they have fallen to 17-23 overall and 7-10 in conference play. The Jags are currently holding onto a tie for sixth place in the Sun Belt Conference standings. They are tied with their in-state rivals Troy and two games back from Western Kentucky and UT-Arlington who are tied for fourth place with a 9-9 conference record.
All three games will be broadcast on 105.5FM WNSP and streamed online on WNSP.com.
Softball
The 20th ranked Jaguar softball team look to return to their early season form as they play down the home stretch going into the Sun Belt Conference Championships that begin on May 7.
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South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team will host Arkansas State for a three-game weekend series at Eddie Stanky Field starting Friday evening at 6:30pm.
Locke St. John (3-1) will make his ninth start of the season against right hander David Owen (4-1) for the Red Wolves. USA enters the game after taking two of three games from Texas State last weekend but dropping a midweek game to Nicholls State 15-4. USA has an overall season record of 15-17 and a 5-6 record in the Sun Belt.
Saturday night the Jags and Red Wolves will get underway at 6:30pm again with right hander Kevin Hill (2-4) taking the mound against lefty Chandler Hawkins (2-4) for ASU. The two will round out the weekend with a 1pm start on Sunday with righty Bradley Wallace (3-3) taking the mound for ASU while USA has not named a starter for Sunday yet.
Arkansas State enters the game with an 18-15 record overall and an 8-4 record in conference play.
Softball
The Jaguars will be in Lafayette taking on fellow Sun Belt powerhouse Louisiana-Lafayette in a three game series. Saturday they will start it off with a double-header beginning at 2pm.
USA enters the game after a 3-2 win over Mississippi State and sporting a 31-6 record overall and a conference record of 8-2. ULL enters the weekend on a 13-game winning streak with an overall record of 28-6-1 and a perfect conference record of 9-0, which puts them on top of the standings for the conference.
Track and Field
The USA Men’s and Women’s track and field teams will compete in their third and final home event as they host the 14th annual South Alabama Invitational at Jaguar Track on Friday and Saturday.
Fellow Sun Belt schools Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Troy will be in attendance as well as Belhaven, Birmingham Southern, Loyola (La.), Tulane, West Florida and William Carey.
The Jaguars will also recognize 13 graduating seniors in a brief ceremony on Saturday. Tyler Agee, Nick Farell, Leah Hixon, Noelle Jones, Jarrod Kedzior, Tori Lawson, Jeff Long, Melissa McClusky, Adam Patterson, Garrett Schumacher, Alex Shields, Connor Smith, and Bobbie Williamson will be the ones honored.
Women’s Golf
The Women’s Golf team will compete in the Sun Belt Championships beginning on Monday at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama. The event will run through Wednesday.
Football
Head coach Joey Jones announced that Quinton Dent has signed a National Letter-of-Intent to join the South Alabama football team this fall.
Dent played the previous two seasons at Laney (Ca.) Community College and is the second JuCo defensive back to sign with USA this spring and raises the number of secondary players in this recruiting class to ten.
Dent is a 6’3″, 180-pound native of Haines City, FL. He earned first-team all-Golden Gate Conference Central Division honors last fall as he helped his team to an 8-3 record. He recorded 32 total tackles, 23 of them solo, with three interceptions and a team-best 13 passes broken up.
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Roundup
Baseball
South Alabama won the series in their first time facing Texas State 2-1.
In the first game, the Jags and the Bobcats went to the 13th inning before Drew LaBounty delivered a one-out RBI single to left field breaking the deadlock in the top of the inning to lead the Jaguars to a 5-4 win in the first game.
Ben Taylor earned the win (3-1) with 4 2/3 scoreless innings of relief with only three hits, one walk and a career high six strikeouts.
The Jags had to rally to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning as they were trailing by one run. Justin Cullifer reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt by Matt Wojciechowski moved pinch runner Cole Jarman to second. LaBounty then hit a two-out RBI single to right field to score Jarman and tie the game at 4-4.
In game two Texas State’s Austen Williams threw a complete-game shutout to lead the Bobcats over the Jaguars 2-0.
Williams (4-1) only allowed four hits while striking out seven and only issuing one walk. USA’s Kevin Hill (2-4) also pitched a complete game in the loss. He allowed two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks. Over the final five innings he only allowed two hits.
On Sunday, the Jaguars clinched the series with a 7-2 win.
USA scored in each of the first three innings of the game then added three more runs in the top of the ninth inning to secure the win.
Cole Gleason got on base with a two-out walk. He was followed by Hayden Jones’ single that bounced off of Bobcat pitcher Lucas Humpal. Mojciechowski then singled through the right side to score Gleason for an early 1-0.
The Jags added to their lead in the top of the second when Drew LaBounty led off the inning with a single to right field. He advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Andrew Tindell. Adam Ballew would drive Labounty in on a one-out RBI sincle to right field.
In the top of the third, Connor Hawthorne doubled down the left field line with two outs. LaBounty would drive him in with an RBI double to left center field as the Jags took a 3-0 lead.
Texas State would cut the lead to 3-2 and threatened more, but Hunter Soleymani worked himself out of the jam by inducing a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Ballew would drive in a run on a fielders choice in the sixth inning where Hawthorne would score from third base for the Jags to take a 4-2 lead.
The final runs of the game started when Ballew reached by being hit by a pitch and Cole Cummings reaching on a fielders choice. Gleason would hit a two-run double to the right center gap to score Ballew and Cummings. Wojciechowski would ground out to second for the second out of the inning, but it allowed Gleason to score for the final score of 7-2.
The team will travel to Thibodaux, Louisiana on Wednesday for a 6pm match-up with Nicholls State before a weekend series against Arkansas State at Eddie Stanky Field.
Softball
The #11 ranked Jaguars also faced Texas State over the weekend in San Marcos, Texas but the Bobcats took series 2-1 after splitting Saturday’s double-header.
In the opening game the Jags won 8-0 as Amanda Minahan went 2-for-4 with a record tying two home runs in a game while scoring three runs and three RBI. Stephanie Pilkington was 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored.
Hannah Campbell earned her 12th win of the season after striking out seven with no walks and only five hits for her fourth shutout of the season.
Freshman Holly McKinnon pitched 2/3 of an inning and struck out both batters she faced to end the game.
In game two the Jags fell 4-1 as the Bobcats jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. The Jags scored their only run when Chloe Rathburn’s triple drove in Blair Johnson, who led off the inning with a walk. Kaitlyn Griffith was hit by a pitch and Amanda Herron walked to load the bases but the Jags could not push any more runs across the plate.
On Sunday, the Jags stranded 10 runners in their 4-3 loss to Texas State.
The Jags fall to 30-6 overall and 8-2 in conference play. Texas State improves to 21-20 overall and 4-5 in conference play.
Three lead changes in the game would begin when TSU took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The Jags would respond in the top of the fourth when freshman Taylor Rodgers hit a two-run homer for a 2-1 lead, but it would be short lived.
Three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning would put the hosts ahead 4-2.
In the top of the sixth inning, the Jags would have runners on the corner, but could not produce a run. In the top of the seventh, Blair Johnson would lead off the inning with a single. Alex Breeden would reach on a two-out fielding error and allowing Johnson to score, but pinch runner Alyssa Linn would be thrown out at third base to finish the game.
Hannah Campbell took the loss (12-3) after giving up six hits and four runs, all earned, while striking out five and four walks.
The Jags will hope to get back on the winning side on wednesday when they host Mississippi State at Jaguar Field for a 6pm game.
Track and Field
USA men’s and women’s track and field teams broke a school record and earned four wins at the Tiger Classic in Auburn, Alabama.
Renaldo Frechou set the Jaguar record in the men’s hammer throw for the fourth time this season with a 63.87m on his sixth and final attempt. He earned the top individual honor int he 20-man field for the event.
Five Jags finished in the top 10 as Adam Patterson (58.37m) and Jeff Long (56.60m) placed third and fourth whiel Jarrod Kedzior and Jan-Louw Kotze finished ninth and tenth. Bobbie Williamson took third place with a 56.26m throw on her final try.
Noelle Jones won the Javelin with a throw of 44.08m. Ashton Pennington finished second with a throw of 39.97m. Sarah Petty finished fifth with a 37.73m throw. Robert King finished seventh for the men with a 53.05m throw.
Kotze won the discus throw in a field of 21 individuals with a throw of 55.25m.
Joe Gratton won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:35.56 for his first career win in the event.
All of the final results can be found here.
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team will face Texas State for the first time on the baseball diamond this weekend starting tonight at 6:30pm in San Marcos, Texas.
The Jags are in the midst of a five game losing streak and carries a 13-15 record into the game. They lost midweek games against Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. Though the Jaguars lead the conference in sacrifice bunts, they are last in the conference in hits, runs scored, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total bases, doubles and home runs.
Texas State is 17-11 overall and 6-3 in conference play this season. They have won two of their last five games. They are batting .247 as a team with a staff ERA of 3.70.
Starting for the Jaguars in game one is Locke St. John (3-1). Kevin Hill (2-3) will start game two and the Jags have not announced a starter for the series finale on Sunday.
Texas State is currently third in the conference while the Jags are sitting eighth out of ten schools.
All of the games can be heard on 105.5FM WNSP or WNSP.com online. Saturday’s game will start at 3pm and Sunday will get underway at 1pm.
Softball
The Jaguar softball team will also be in San Marcos, Texas for a three game Sun Belt Conference series against the Bobcats.
They will play a double-header on Saturday with their first game set for 1pm and the second scheduled for 3pm. They will wrap up the series on Sunday beginning at 11am.
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Williamson Named SBC Women’s Field Athlete Of The Week
South Alabama’s Bobbie Williamson was named the Sun Belt Conference Women’s field athlete of the week on Wednesday by the Sun Belt office.
Williamson had a career-high throw in the women’s hammer throw with a toss of 59.53m in her first attempt in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas last week. That put her in fifth place out of 23 individuals and ranks second all-time in the Jaguar record books.
She is the reigning conference champion and currently sits on top of the conference rankings in the event. She also rated fifth in the NCAA Division I East Region and 15th in the nation.
She has finished in the top five in each of the four Jaguars outdoor meeting this season.
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguars will host a three game series against Sun Belt newcomers UT-Arlington this weekend beginning tonight at 6:30pm if the weather permits. Game two on Saturday is set for 3pm and will be televised by the Sun Belt Network and also will be available on WatchESPN.com. The final game of the series will get underway at noon on Sunday.
All three games will be streamed from the University website as well as broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP and WNSP.com.
Softball
The Lady Jaguars will also be hosting a three game weekend series against Louisiana-Monroe starting with a double-header on Saturday starting at 1pm with the second game set to start at 3pm. They will wrap up the weekend series on Sunday with a 1pm start.
Football
The Jaguars will have their annual Red-Blue Spring Game on Saturday at 11am at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Though this will not be their final spring practice. Gates will open to the parking lot around 8am.
Track and Field
On Thursday, the men’s track and field team set three new school records at the 87th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.
Senior Connor Smith earned individual honors in the Section ‘B’ men’s pole vault with a 5.20m vault which was good enough to break his own all-time Jaguar best by 1/10 of a meter and to lead the field of 16.
Garrett Schumacher toppled his own record in the decathlon by finishing with 6,991 points to claim 11th overall. He entered Thursday with 3,644 points through five events. He then set new personal records in the pole vault (4.80m), discus throw (40.51m) and 100-meter hurdles (15.94m).
Freshman Renaldo Frechou set a new record in the hammer throw for the third time this season. His throw of 63.27m on his sixth and final attempt put him 5th in the 25 man field.
Bobbie Williamson also put up a career-high measure of 59.53m in the women’s hammer throw which was good enough for second place all-time in the Jaguar history books.
They will continue today in Texas with Jan-Louw Kotze in discus and Tyler Agee in the 110-meter hurdles.