Mother Nature may have had her way with the Redbirds’ baseball series against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend, but the rainy weather wasn’t enough to halt the Big Cat Classic, a University of Memphis-hosted track meet held on South Campus Saturday.
The event, hosted in a joint effort by the Tigers and Rhodes College, featured several local teams, including the University of Tennessee-Martin, Austin Peay and the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and was the last home event for several Memphis seniors.
Unfortunately for the women’s team, which had several individuals turn in top 10 performances, no team scores were kept Saturday.
Memphis runners swept the women’s 100-meter dash, with sophomore Keenan Gibson flying to a first-place finish in a time of 12.33. Freshman Chanel Dunn took second in 12.51 while senior Melissa Abraham, who started at power forward for the Lady Tiger basketball team this season, finished a close third in 12.60.
Senior distance runners Lilly Lebron and Andrea Dahlman finished first and second, respectively, in the 10,000-meter run. Lebron turned in a time of 41:31.26 while Dahlman finished in 41:50.68.
Freshmen Ashley Redd and Victoria Crawford pulled off the same feat in the high jump. Redd finished first in the competition with a 5-foot, two-inch jump while Crawford placed second with a jump of five feet even.
Senior hurdler Zaneta Ivy and sophomore Cherishe Hollingsworth finished third and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles while sophomore jumper Lisa-Marie Hyman leaped to a fifth-place finish in the triple jump.
Senior Wendy Ragle also performed well for the Lady Tigers, finishing fifth in the 3,000-meter run in a time of 11:58.35 while freshman Titian-Rose Whittle placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.04.
In the throws, junior Monique Nelson finished third in the discus with a toss of 122 feet while senior Kameilah Amaya finished fourth with her toss of 120 feet. Amaya also threw 140 feet to finish third in the 20-pound weight throw.
“The weather conditions were bad (because) it rained all day, “ Amaya said. “Coach (Brenda Cash) just told us to get in the event and do the best that we could.”
Cash’s squad also took first in the 4x100-meter relay in a time of 47.55
On the men’s side, sophomore Greg Doughty had the best individual showing for Memphis, winning the javelin competition with a throw of 51.51 meters.
Freshman distance runner Derek Nakluski rounded out the men’s top 10 finishers, finishing third in the 10,000-meter run in a time of 33:25.28.
Also participating in this weekend’s meet were: The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Bethel College, Lipscomb University, Principia College, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Southern Arkansas University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Harding University Hendrix College and Carthage College.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will travel to New Orleans this weekend to compete in the Tulane Invitational.
