Three Trojans Advance to Finals at Sun Belt Championship

Meet Results

ARLINGTON, Texas – Little Rock advanced three runners to event finals on Saturday at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championship at Maverick Stadium.
 
Anika Charles blew past the competition in the 400, winning the prelims with a time of 54.00 seconds. Charles won the race by 0.66 seconds to easily qualify for Sunday's event final. Teammate Bless Dupeh also qualified for the final with a seventh-place finish in 55.56 seconds.
 
Eboni Smith and Jessica Gray also ran in the 400, taking 16th and 17th place with times of 57.70 and 58.80 seconds, respectively.
 
Later in the evening, Tyler Kelly became the third Trojan to qualify for Sunday's finals by placing sixth in the 400-meter hurdle prelims. Kelly, the school record holder in the event, ran Saturday's race in 1:02.03.
 
Arbonay Hill-Bess was the first Trojan on the track, taking 24th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 18.33 seconds to finish her freshman season.
 
In the 200, Dupeh took 14th place with a run of 24.69 seconds. Christina Nickerson took 24th place in 25.27 seconds, Brittney Anderson was 32nd in 26.41 seconds and Brittany Pinder-Jones was 33rd in 26.51 seconds.
 
Earlier in the day, Anderson was Little Rock's lone representative in the 100, racing to a 25th-place finish in 12.73 seconds.
 
Akeia Joyner ran the 800 for the Trojans, placing 19th in a time of 2:22.03.
 
Nicole Edison and Tyra Gillam began the day competing in the long jump. Edison took 29th place with a distance of 4.97 meters, a mark she achieved on her second jump of the afternoon. Gillam was 31st when she reached 4.92 meters.
 
Charles and Dupeh will compete in the 400 finals on Sunday as will Kelly in the 400 hurdles. The Trojans will also compete in the 4x400 relay to close out the meet. Rebeca Solis and Adela Hernandez will also race in the 5K and Gillam will face the triple jump on Sunday.