ROCK HILL, S.C. - After setting NCAA provisional marks in their various events, Makanakaishe Charamba and Joseph Oreva earned SAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week awards announced on Tuesday, Apr. 12.
Charamba earns his first career SAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week honor after winning all three races he competed in at the Lee Flames Invitational. The Harare, Zimbabwe native won the 200-meter run on Friday, Apr. 8, with a time of 20.84 seconds, beating out Michael Gizzi of Alabama-Huntsville by 0.47 seconds. The mark is a new personal best and gives Charamba the second-best time in all of Division-II in the race. Charamba sits behind Marlin Davis of Lenoir-Rhyne, who holds a time of 20.79 seconds.
On Saturday, Apr. 10, Charamba ran with the men's 4x100 meter relay team of PJ Lotharp, Tshenelo Lemao, and Siphosethu Boya as the Eagles won their second straight race of the outdoor season. The quartet beat host Lee by 0.14 seconds in just their second race together as a team. The Eagles hold the second-fastest time in the SAC in the event and the 18th fastest time in Division-II.
Charamba closed his day with a win in the 100-meter run with an NCAA provisional time of 10.48 seconds. The freshman beat out Silusapho Dingiswayo of Lee by 0.24 seconds to win the event championship. The mark is a new personal best and is the 18th fastest time in the race in all of Division-II.
Oreva earns his first SAC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week honor this season after competing at the Joe May Invitational in Baton Rouge, La. The sophomore from Port Harcourt, Nigeria finished third in the long jump with a distance of 7.77 meters. That mark sets a new meet record and is just 0.03 meters short of the school record set by Larry Cooke in 1977.
Oreva's mark beats out Christopher Goodwin from Central Missouri's previous number one mark of 7.64 meters by 0.13 meters. On his third jump of the day, Oreva had already passed Goodwin with a jump of 7.65 meters. Oreva beat out jumpers from LSU, Houston, Kentucky, Kent State and UConn. The two jumpers that beat out Oreva were former NCAA Division-I long jump champion Rayvon Grey at 7.91 meters and Julian Collins of Alabama at 8.05 meters.
The honor is Oreva's second honor of the 2022 Division-II track & field season, after being named SAC Indoor Field Athlete of the Week on Feb. 1, 2022. It is the sophomore's fourth career SAC weekly honor and his first career outdoor weekly award from the SAC.
It is the first time the Eagles have swept the SAC men's outdoor awards since Apr. 2, 2019 when Devon Moore won the track award and current jumps coach Kris Potts-Howard won the field award.
Carson-Newman will look to set more national provisional times and improve their standing at the Electric City Invitational at Anderson University on Saturday, Apr. 16. Fans can follow along with updates on the Carson-Newman track & field team at cneagles.com.
