Four Trojans land on OVC Athletes to Watch list for indoor season

The Little Rock Indoor Track & Field teams return to action next weekend for the official start of the 2024-25 season, and four Trojans have been named Ohio Valley Conference Athletes to Watch for head coach J.P. Behnke's squad.
 
Redshirt senior Andrew Payton (male track), junior Takia Palmer (female track), senior Johnathan Jones (male field) and sophomore Alexia Washington (female field) were chosen by the OVC in a list released Thursday by the league.
 
Little Rock's men are the defending indoor champions, while the women were runners-up a year ago. The Trojans "unofficially" began their indoor season on Dec. 7 at the Crimson & Gold Invitational hosted by Pittsburg State. Team scores were not kept for the event. Little Rock travels to Fayetteville for the prestigious Arkansas Invite on Friday, Jan. 17 at the Tyson Center.
 
Last month at Pittsburg State, Payton set a new meet record and won the men's one-mile event in a time of 4:09.60. Washington won gold in the triple jump and Devin Stevens won the men's 800 meters. TaVieon Neal also won gold in the men's 60 meters. Payton and Washington received OVC Athlete of the Week honors after reaching personal bests during the meet.