By Cody Stark
NACOGDOCHES — Sam Houston State jumpers Chris Gilchrist, Henry Jordan and A.J. Edwards were hoping to finish 1-2-3 in the long jump finals at the Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Stephen F. Austin University on Saturday.
They didn’t quite get it done, but it was awfully close.
Gilchrist captured first with a leap of 24 feet, 1 3/4 inches, Jordan was right behind in second at 23-7 1/2 and Edwards came in fourth at 23-5 1/2 as the Bearkat men head into today’s running finals with 48 points and in third place behind Southeastern Louisiana (54) and Stephen F. Austin (50).
“We wanted to get one through fourth, something we really worked hard at, but we at least got first, second and fourth,” said Gilchrist, who’s teammate C.J. Patterson place 10th in the event. “I know the coaches are pretty pleased with that. I have been waiting for this for a while. I was hurt in indoors, so I’m glad to win this.”
Sophomore Dess Meek placed second in the high jump to highlight action for the SHSU women, who are currently in fourth place with 31 points. She finished tied with Texas State’s Valerie Hancock at 5 feet, 8 3/4 inches when both failed to clear the next height in three attempts. But because Hancock cleared 5-8 3/4 on her first attempt, Meek finished second.
“It was a bad day, I felt like everything was off,” said Meek, who also finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18-11 1/4. “There are no excuses, but I’m disappointed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”
Also earning points for the Bearkat women, who are in fourth with 31 points, were Jenny Zoch and Ebonee Stephens in the shot put. Zoch saved her best throw for last, hitting 43 feet, 4 1/2 inches to place fifth. Stephens finished sixth with a toss of 43 1/4.
The biggest surprise of the day was the performance of Matt Johnson. The freshman from Port Neches came out of nowhere to place second in the decathlon with 7,210 points in 10 events.
“Ten events is rough on everybody,” Johnson said. “But before each day of the events, I would look in the Bible in Romans and find a verse that would help me get through each day. It’s perseverance and making your body last through all those events. It’s not about doing great in everything, it’s about how good you can spread it across the board.”
Johnson trailed Texas-San Antonio’s Tommy Wolfe by 106 points heading into the final event Saturday afternoon, the 1,500-meter run. But Johnson turned it on down the stretch and was able to finish seventh, which was far enough ahead of Wolfe to make up the point difference.
“Matt Johnson has been out here the last two days all day and what he was able to do was impressive and one of the highlights of the meet for us,” SHSU head track coach Curtis Collier said.
“The 7,210 is the second-best score in our school history and is an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. That means he will get on a list and it probably won’t be good enough to get into the national championships, but we will wait and see.”
