CLEMSON, S.C.—Kevin Snead (Richmond, Va.) kicked off the weekend in impressive fashion with a sixth-place finish in the men's 60 meter dash against a strong field of completion at the Tiger Paw Invitational Friday afternoon in Clemson, S.C.
The sprinter was the lone Eagle to compete at the Division I meet as Snead will join the rest of his C-N teammates Saturday morning in Winston Salem, N.C. at the JDL UCS Invitational to again try to improve his time.
"We are very pleased with the way Kevin ran today and he did I against a tremendous field. Great competition, a little under the weather and still ran strong," Carson-Newman track and field coach David Needs said. "He did some great things to build off of moving forward. The field of people he ran against included some of the best in college along with a few great unattached runners."
Snead's sixth-place finish of 6.75 seconds in the men's 60 meter dash was the fastest of the season for the senior and was only two, one-hundredths off his career best time of 6.73 seconds at the UCS Invitational a season ago.
Luckily for Snead, the three-time All-American will be heading back to the same track at JDL and the same meet, the UCS Invitational, Saturday morning with a chance to improve more as the 2017 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships continue to approach.
In the preliminary round, Snead also ran a 6.75 second time to finish in seventh-place and to punch his ticket to the finals round later in the day. During the finals sector, Snead stumbled out of the blocks but still managed to record the same 6.75 second time as before to cap off the day with a sixth-place finals showing.
With the 6.75 second time, Snead sprints all the way from 29th in Division II to third-overall—trailing both Lester Miller from Shorter and Academy of Art's Mobolade Ajomale. The time all but locks the athlete into yet another trip to the national stage.
Snead outperformed one of the aforementioned athletes who sits ahead of him in the standings Friday afternoon in Clemson. The nation's No. 1 sprinter in the 60 meters, Miller, finished behind Snead in the preliminary race with a 6.82 seconds. The Shorter sprinter just edged Snead in the finals sector with a 6.74 second time to finish one spot better in fifth-place.
The only sprinters who recorded faster times than the two Division II sprinters were Division I athletes Kendal Williams and Michael Timpson Jr and unattached runners Warrren Frazier and Dentarius Locke. All in all, Snead beat out a number of other athletes from Division I programs such as The Citadel, Clemson and Alabama.
"To his credit, Kevin is as sick as a dog with a sinus infection, but he still nearly beat his lifetime personal-best," Needs added. "We are excited about where he is and I think tomorrow, if he is feeling well, he will may do even better."
Stay tuned into Carson-Newman track and field throughout Saturday's events at the JDL UCS Invitational by following the club's Twitter account at @CN_Track. A complete recap of the day of action will also be available at cneagles.com.
60 meter dash
Prelim: 7th- 6.75 seconds
Finals: 6th-6.75 seconds
-CN-
