Texas A&M-Corpus Christi freshman Kassandrea Son was named the
Southland Conference Co-Women's Athlete of the Week on Wednesday
after her performance at this past Saturday's Javelina
Invitational. Son along with Shadrack Songok have marks among the
nations leaders.
The freshman
placed first in three events – the long jump and 100 and
200-meter dashes. Son won the long jump with a school–record
leap of 6.35 meters (20'10") , which is the sixth-longest in the
long jump this season. With the mark, Son has the best jump in the
Southland Conference this season based on the marks on leagues
website and has qualified for the NCAA Regional in the event. Her
jump was four inches off the Olympic Trial B standard and just over
seven inches off the A qualifying mark.
She also placed
first in the 100-meter dash in 0:12.29 and in the 200 with a time
of 0:25.46. Son finished in second behind teammate Mellaneisha
Gentry in the triple jump. Gentry cleared 11.78m, while Son was
second in 11.73m.
Son shared the
award with UTSA's Brittany Epps. Epps leaped to a season-best of
20-0 ¼ inches to finish second behind Son, posting the
second-best measure in the Southland Conference and qualifying for
the NCAA Region in the process. She also ran on the winning 4x100m
and 4x400m relays which posted times of 46.67 and 3:47.65, the
latter of which is the second-fastest time in the SLC this
season.
Northwestern State's Chad Leath was the men's honoree.
Aside from
Son's sixth-best mark in the long jump in the NCAA Division I
ranks, a pair of Islander men are among the national leaders in a
pair of events.
Songok is
currently third in the country in the 10,000-meter run. The
reigning NCAA Champion in the event posted a time of 28:19.62 on
April 4 at Stanford. He trails only La Salle's Sean Quigley and
Eastern Kentucky's Jacob Korir, who finished ahead of Songok in the
same meet with times of 28:03.72 and 28:04.47, are ranked first and
second. Woolery currently has the 13th-best mark in the discus with
a distance of 57.25m (187'10") at the Texas Relays.
Several members
of the Islander team will be in action this weekend at the Mt. SAC
Relays in Walnut, Calif., while the majority of the team will
compete at the Texas Open in Austin on Saturday.
