Friday, March 17
Auburn, AL
Jax State
at
Tiger Track Classic
Chan breaks 5K record in outdoor debut
3/19/2023 7:42:00 PM | Track and Field
AUBURN – Jacksonville State opened the 2023 outdoor track and field season over the weekend at the Tiger Track Classic hosted by Auburn, where the Gamecocks saw several top marks across the board.
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Highlighting Jax State's weekend was the distance performances of freshman Elsa Chan in both the 3,000 and 5,000-meter events. The Brisbane, Australia, native, broke another school record in her outdoor debut, clocking a 17:23.31 in the 3,000-meters for a runner-up finish in the race. Her time was just under a second faster than Ericka Stam's previous record of 17:24.68 set in 2014.
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After setting the program's new 5K standard on Friday, Chan returned the following day to win the 3,000-meter event by more than three seconds over second-place Agnes Chepkurui of Middle Tennessee State with a winning time of 10:16.31.
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JSU's distance success carried over to Bethelhem Jimeno Manzano, who had strong runs in the 1,500 and 800-meter races. She finished seventh in her first-ever outdoor 1,500, and later scored a third-place finish in the 800 with a personal best mark of 2:17.64.
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Fellow Gamecocks to turn in personal bests included Rachel Peterson's 27:15 200-meter time, Kirsen Gardner's 34.69-meter toss in the hammer throw and 3.40-meter height in the pole vault. Also in the field, freshman Lydia Seals had an impressive debut in the javelin throw coming home sixth with a distance of 38.19 meters.
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"Overall, it was a good start to the outdoor season," said JSU head coach Jeremy Provence. "We were able to get some good marks which takes a little pressure off as we prepare for the next meet. It is early, they are training hard, so this performance is encouraging for the rest of season."
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"We can be proud of the performance because this group is going out there and competing. And I love the energy that we are building. You can feel it and they are gaining more and more confidence each week. The process is long and hard, but when you believe in what you're doing and having fun doing it, that's when you start to see things really start to come together."
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JSU returns to action later this week at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Miss., which gets underway on Thursday.
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Highlighting Jax State's weekend was the distance performances of freshman Elsa Chan in both the 3,000 and 5,000-meter events. The Brisbane, Australia, native, broke another school record in her outdoor debut, clocking a 17:23.31 in the 3,000-meters for a runner-up finish in the race. Her time was just under a second faster than Ericka Stam's previous record of 17:24.68 set in 2014.
Â
After setting the program's new 5K standard on Friday, Chan returned the following day to win the 3,000-meter event by more than three seconds over second-place Agnes Chepkurui of Middle Tennessee State with a winning time of 10:16.31.
Â
JSU's distance success carried over to Bethelhem Jimeno Manzano, who had strong runs in the 1,500 and 800-meter races. She finished seventh in her first-ever outdoor 1,500, and later scored a third-place finish in the 800 with a personal best mark of 2:17.64.
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Fellow Gamecocks to turn in personal bests included Rachel Peterson's 27:15 200-meter time, Kirsen Gardner's 34.69-meter toss in the hammer throw and 3.40-meter height in the pole vault. Also in the field, freshman Lydia Seals had an impressive debut in the javelin throw coming home sixth with a distance of 38.19 meters.
Â
"Overall, it was a good start to the outdoor season," said JSU head coach Jeremy Provence. "We were able to get some good marks which takes a little pressure off as we prepare for the next meet. It is early, they are training hard, so this performance is encouraging for the rest of season."
Â
"We can be proud of the performance because this group is going out there and competing. And I love the energy that we are building. You can feel it and they are gaining more and more confidence each week. The process is long and hard, but when you believe in what you're doing and having fun doing it, that's when you start to see things really start to come together."
Â
JSU returns to action later this week at the Ole Miss Classic in Oxford, Miss., which gets underway on Thursday.
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