NEW ORLEANS, La. - For the first time since the end of the 2021 outdoor season, the Carson-Newman men's track & field team find themselves inside the USTFCCCA rankings, released on Tuesday, Apr. 12.
The Eagles are up 19 spots to enter the top-25, sitting at no. 23 in the latest TFRI. The convocation join no. 9 Queens as the only other SAC team in the men's rankings. West Texas A&M sits at first in the USTFCCCA top-25.
Carson-Newman can attribute their success to a pair of award-winning performances by Makanakaishe Charamba and Joseph Oreva at the Lee Flames Invitational.
Charamba won 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 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.
It is the first time since the end of the 2021 outdoor season that the Eagles have been ranked, finishing 11th in the final rankings. That is still C-N's best finish in the nattional polls.
The convocation heads to Anderson, S.C. for the Electric City Invitational on Saturday, Apr. 16.
