NEW ORLEANS, La. - After recording nine event wins as a group at the Electric City Invitational, the Carson-Newman men's track & field team sits tight at no. 23 in the USTFCCCA Track & Field Ratings Index.
The Eagles join no. 15 Queens as the only two SAC schools to be ranked in the the national TFRI. West Texas A&M remains in the no. one spot.
Carson-Newman athletes had a stellar showing at the Electric City Invitational in Anderson, S.C. this weekend, thanks to award-winning performances by Makanakaishe Charamba and Courtavious Garrett.
Charamba earned the men's outdoor track athlete of the week for the second straight week, after winning all three races he competed in for the second straight event. The freshman's day began with a bang as the men's 4x100 meter relay team of himself, PJ Lotharp, Tshenelo Lemao and Siphosethu Boya won the race with a time of 40.59 seconds. That mark is the twelfth fastest in all of Division-II, as the quartet record their third straight win in the event, defeating Lenoir-Rhyne by 0.77 seconds.
The time is also a new school record, breaking the old mark set all the way back in 1976 of 40.70 seconds. The time was the second-oldest men's outdoor track record still standing before today, lasting 46 years.
Charamba went on to win the 100-meter and 200-meter runs for the second straight week. The Harare, Zimbabwe native won the 100-meter run by 0.14 seconds over Marlin Davis of Lenoir-Rhyne with a time of 10.41 seconds. That time is a new personal best and moves Charamba to a tie for the eleventh fastest time in Division-II in the race with Phillip Landrum of Fort Hays State.
In the 200-meter run, the freshman won the race by 0.44 seconds, beating out Noah Meadows of Southern Wesleyan with a time of 20.87 seconds. Charamba has now won seven straight races he has competed in this outdoor season.
Garrett earns his first career SAC outdoor men's field athlete of the week award after he picked up a pair of event championships this weekend, winning the long jump and triple jump championships in the Electric City. Garrett took home the long jump title with a distance of 7.12 meters, his second win of the season in the event.
He ended his day with his first career win in the triple jump with a personal best jump of 14.46 meters in the event. Garrett was the only competitor to clear 14 meters, beating out Nick Henriques of Lenoir-Rhyne by 0.58 meters. That mark also beats his old previous personal best by 0.22 meters.
The weekend also saw event wins from Boya, Matthew Blackmon, Shane Connell, and Trayzel Jureidini-Wyche on the men's side.
Boya won the 400-meter run with a time of 47.65 seconds. That mark demolishes his old C-N personal best mark of 49.07 seconds by 1.42 seconds. That time is also an NCAA provisional mark, and is tied with Nolan Churchman of Fort Hays State for the 18th fastest time in Division-II.
Connell got in on the action in the high jump, recording an NCAA provisional mark with a clearance of 2.05 meters. The Manchester, England native was the only jumper in the entire field to clear 2.00 meters. Connell has now won three straight and four of the last five event championships in the high jump.
For the second time this season, Blackmon earned a win in the 110 meter hurdles. The freshman ran a personal best time of 14.71 seconds to earn the win. Blackmon is the first Carson-Newman men's hurdler to win multiple event championships in the race since Darius Childs did so in 2013.
Jureidini-Wyche recorded his second win of the season in the discus with a toss of 49.21 meters. The senior has recorded eleven straight top-five finishes in the event dating back to the 2019 L-R Classic.
The Eagles will look to continue their strong outdoor season at the LR Bears Open this Saturday, Apr. 23 at 10:30 AM. Fans can follow the action at cneagles.com.