King Leads Dukes on Day 2 of Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational

Friday, January 27

Lynchburg, Va.

James Madison University

Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational

King Leads Dukes on Day 2 of Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational

1/28/2017 9:31:00 PM | Track & Field

Darius Dixon Results @JMUTrackField JMU T&F on Facebook

LYNCHBURG, Va. – James Madison track & field senior Kennedy King won the long jump with a personal record and ECAC-qualifying leap of 5.92 meters (19'5") at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational inside the Liberty Indoor Track Complex on Saturday. The jump was the fourth-best mark in JMU history.

King and sophomore Meredith Willis competed in the 60-meter dash for the first time in their collegiate careers with great success. Willis recorded an ECAC-qualifying mark of 7.65 seconds, good for sixth on the JMU All-Time Performance List. King placed 12th out of 51 runners with a time of 7.78 seconds. Junior Aereale Scott also qualified for ECACs with a fifth-place 7.69 second mark.

The Dukes' new ECAC qualifiers were rounded out by the 4x400 relay 'A' team of Willis, freshman Alexys Taylor, senior Annie Johnson and redshirt junior De'Ana Forbes, who finished fourth with a time of 3:52.27.

Scott was also the third-fastest 60-meter hurdles competitor on Saturday with a season-best mark of 8.68 seconds in the semifinals. Junior Tyrah Burrow had a successful day, placing third in the 400-meter dash (57.40 seconds) and 15th in the 200-meter dash with a personal record mark of 25.64 seconds.

PERSONAL RECORDS
In addition to King, Willis and Burrow, a number of Dukes achieved personal best marks on Saturday:

Summer Walter – 200-meter dash – 26.72 seconds
Kelly Oler – 400-meter dash – 1:02.50
Elise Rasmussen – 1,000-meter run – 3:02.19
Angelique DeMeo – 3,000-meter run – 10:37.16

QUOTING COACH HICKS
"It was a tough meet and we didn't have the best marks on paper, but the girls had a lot of technical breakthroughs and everybody competed their hearts out. We're still optimistic about the season, and this was a good learning opportunity going into Penn State next weekend."

UP NEXT
The Dukes travel to University Park, Pa. for the Sykes-Sabock Challenge on Feb. 3-4.