Track signees shine at state, national meets
June 5, 2012
MANHATTAN, Kan. – After signing National Letters of in Intent earlier this semester a group of Kansas State track and field recruits excelled at their respective high school state championships and NJCAA Championship. Seven soon-to-be-Wildcats combined to claim four titles and four runner-up finishes before donning the purple this fall.
Tia Gamble helped De Soto High School to a team title at the Texas State Championship where she finished third in the 300 meter hurdles. She also ran anchor legs of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays that both finished second. Also competing at the Texas state meet, Tyris Jefferson won the boys long jump title. Both Gamble and Jefferson competed at the 5A level, the largest in Texas.
Two Wildcat signees claimed championships at the Kansas state meet as well. Alyssa Kelly won the 6A long jump and triple jump crowns while Shannon Parr won the 3A high jump with a new personal best clearance of 5-10.00.
Jordan Mathews followed her runner-up finish at the Pennsylvania state meet a year ago with a third-place finish this year in the long jump. She also took fourth place in the 400 meters.
Rounding out the high school state updates, Jasmine Gibbs put on a strong performance at the California state meet last weekend. Gibbs took silver in the long jump with her leap of 19-11.25. She currently ranks 15th in the nation and is second under all weather conditions. Gibbs also took third place in the 100 meters. During preliminaries, she did run the third fastest time in the nation clocking in at 11.43 seconds. That time breaks the sectional record previously held by three-time Olympic gold medalist Gail Devers. Gibbs competed in the 200 meters as well finishing fifth at 23.97 seconds.
K-State’s juco transfer Jharyl Bowry followed his indoor NJCAA long jump title with a runner-up jump outdoors. His leap of 25-08.00 took second place and currently ranks him No. 1 in his native Canada.
Eight current Wildcats are set to compete at the NCAA Championship this week beginning on Wednesday. Action can be followed online at ncaa.com from Drake Stadium.