WALNUT, Calif.–The Northwestern State men’s 4×400 relay runs its fastest when competing against some of the best in the country.
After breaking the school record at the Florida Relays earlier this month, the quartet did it again Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays, clocking an impressive 3:04.45 to win the event, narrowly winning it over powerhouse Arkansas.
Desmond Duncan, Kason Jones, Charlie Bartholomew and Will Achee came back once again to win the event after being third after two legs. Achee ran an impressive 45.21 in his anchor leg to overcome a deficit going into the final leg to win.
That highlighted a terrific final day Saturday in California at the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Mt. San Antonio College Relays.
Silet Gray, Eliska Zahradnickova and the men’s 4×100 relay team are just part of those who made the most of their opportunities to show what they can do against top competition, as they both ran or threw to Southland Conference-leading marks on Saturday.
“It was another great weekend highlighted by our men’s 4×4 winning the Mt. SAC Relays,” head coach Mike Heimerman said. “That’s a phenomenal run by those four guys —another school record, which is amazing. All four relays ran really well. The throwers did well again … La’Darion Dudley winning the men’s shot and Donroy Brown getting second was impressive. Probably the highlight of the day over here at the Bryan Clay was Silet Gray running a big PR of 59 seconds in the 400 hurdles.
“Overall, it was a great weekend here in California. It’s weird to say you’re basically having a full team out here in California with two different meets for us to compete at, which was quite amazing. Thanks to our administration and then a couple of donors to help out with this, but it was an amazing experience for the coaching staff, and these kids work really hard.
“It was an overall great experience for these young men and women over the last three days that these two meets. Couldn’t be prouder of them and bigger things are to come down the road,” Heimerman said.
Northwestern next competes Saturday at the LSU Alumni Gold, the second-to-last meet prior to the conference outdoor championships.
