Life women win Mid-South outdoor track title

The Life women’s track team collected eight individual titles to come from two spots back after the first day and won the first Mid-South Conference outdoor championship in program history.

Life’s Dominic Demeritte earned Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year, while senior jumper Bria Sands was named Athlete of the Year.

The Running Eagles scored 217 points as they pulled away from Lindsey Wilson (160.5) and Cumberlands (144).

Out of the nine individual titles earned by the Running Eagles athletes, Sands and Iantha Wright combined for five.

Sands swept all the jumping events she took part in, with marks of 18 feet, 4½ inches in the long jump, 5-6½ in the high jump and 39-6½ in the triple jump. Wright set personal records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, with times of 11.73 and 24.74 seconds, respectively, to qualify for the NAIA championships in both events.

Other title winners included Alisha Wright in the 100 hurdles (14.30), Aliyah Sangster in the 400 (58.02) and Levonis Davis in the discus (123-0).

Taylor Ward got things started with a wide-margin of victory in the 10,000 with a time of 38:45.00, and the 4x400 relay team of Alisha Wright, Sangster, Maya Smith-Speed and Iantha Wright ended things on top with a time of 3:57.53.

Out of Life’s 10 all-conference honors received, four of them came in very opportune moments as Briana Madison and Ariana Madison helped the team sweep the podium in the 100 hurdles with times of 14.59 and 15.49, respectively. Smith-Speed came in second in the 100 with a time of 12.09, while Alexia Perkins was third in 12.12.

Other all-conference nods went to Silja Petursdottir in the heptathlon (3,220 points), Sangster in the 400 hurdles (1:08.13), Smith-Speed in the 200 (25.08), Ward in the 5,000 (18:46.38), Danielle Albright in the hammer throw (152-3) and discus (119-0), Addison Ammons in the pole vault (10-4) and Davis in the shot put (40-10½).