Lynchburg, VA – Freshman Amani Sharif and senior Karlijn Schouten became the first Austin Peay State University (APSU) track and field student-athletes to be named ASUN Champions during the Governors first day of the ASUN Conference Indoor Championships, Friday, at the Liberty Track Complex.
Sharif earned Austin Peay State University’s first gold medal of the day with a 5.89-meter leap, besting second place by two-hundredths of a meter. Sharif was the only freshman in to finish top five in the event.
Schouten earned her fourth-career championship with a program-record 4.21-meter pole vault – 0.24 meters better than the runner-up in the event from Liberty. Schouten broke her own program record of 4.20 which she set last season and now owns the top four pole vaults in indoor history.
The duo was not the only APSU Govs to impress on the opening day of the championships, as five Govs qualified for their event’s finals tomorrow and a total of 10 athletes earned top 10 marks.
Kyra Wilder qualified with a 7.694-second 60-meter, while Isis Banks finished 13th with a 7.78-second time. Camaryn McClelland finished eighth in the 60-meter prelims, while Kennedi Johnson and Sharif placed 12th and 15th, respectively.
Kenisha Phillips advances to the finals of the 200-meter and 400-meter tomorrow after leading the field in the 200-meter preliminary round and finishing fourth in the 400 prelims. Isis Banks and Wilder were nine and 10th in the 200, respectively.
Lauren Lewis also advances to the final round of her event after a seventh place, 2:12.73 800-meter. Mikaela Smith finished two spots below Lewis in the event with a time of 2:15.70.
Back in the field, McClelland finished 13th in the long jump, while Myra Eriksson earned a 10th-place finish in the pole vault after recording a 3.57 mark.
After day one the Austin Peay State University Governors are fifth in the standings with 20 points. Liberty leads the event with 84 points and is followed by Kennesaw State (66 points), Lipscomb (29), Queens (24) and Jacksonville (22).
