Championship Program | JSU Bests of 2017 | OVC Championship Entry List

OXFORD – Bringing its season to a close, Jacksonville State is set to host the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Choccolocco Park beginning Thursday, May 11.
 
The three-day meet will feature all 12 OVC schools and more than 600 competing student-athletes. With JSU hosting its first outdoor championship at the new Choccolocco facility in Oxford, it marks the ninth-consecutive year a different league member has hosted the outdoor championships. That streak will end next season when the event returns to Eastern Kentucky, site of the 2009 championship.
 
The Gamecocks won three team titles earlier this season, two of which came at Choccolocco Park during JSU home meets. Jax State also scored a top five finish at Western Carolina and was competitive against power programs in Auburn's War Eagle Invitational and Tennessee's Tennessee Challenge.
 
Junior Kayla Thompson has been one of JSU's most consistent threats on the track. She posted the second fastest 100-meter time in the OVC this season with a 11.81 mark at South Alabama on April 15, which at the time led the conference before Murray State's Lawrence Tamdra's was three-tenths quicker two weekends later. Thompson also holds JSU's fastest mark in the 200-meter race this season as well.
 
Freshman Emily Sorrell has carried the JSU banner in distance events with team best marks in both the 800 and 1,500-meter events, and is top 10 in both in the conference. Senior Ju-Ells McLeod has been right with Sorrell all year in distance runs with the third fastest 800, second best 1,500 and JSU's fastest 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:33.34 at the Emory Invitational.
 
Another rising distance runner in the JSU stable has been freshman Aubree Cole. Another Cross Country and Track dual athlete, Cole was just behind McLeod in her season-best 5,000-meter race and was the only Gamecock to run the 3,000 this season with a 11:44.51 at South Alabama.
 
In the hurdles, junior Blake Perry recorded a Gamecock best 14.81 in the 100-meter hurdles at Emory. Meanwhile, sophomore Brittany Cook was second with a 15.09 at Alabama A&M. Cook has also been a leading contender in the field events. She hold JSU's top marks this season in both the long jump and triple jump.
 
Cook's teammate Erica Edwards has been another standout in jumps. Her five-foot, seven inch leap was the third best OVC score this year in the high jump. Other league top five come from Laura Sewell and Samantha Patterson tie with a height of 11 feet, 3.75 inches in the pole vault.
 
But the throwing competitions have been where the Gamecocks have tallied the most points this year. Behind Courtney Bennett, Sophie Merritt, Noelia Caceres, Greta Romei, Marelly Ballentina and Aquanita Branford, the Gamecocks own seven of the top five spots in the OVC for shot put, discus, hammer and javelin. Jax State has the three best marks in the league in javelin led by Marelly Ballentina's throw of 135 ½ feet at South Alabama.
 
In all-around action, Baylee Porch and Selena Tarvin have the second and third best scores in the heptathlon this season.
 
The OVC championships will be wrap up Saturday afternoon following a recognition of senior athletes and the awards ceremony. Live results for the championship are available at JSUGamecockSports.com. The event will also be video streamed on the OVC Digital Network.