Hampton’s Lewis is Div I outdoor triple jump national champion
June 10, 2007
Sacramento, Calif. – With her final jump of the afternoon, Hampton University’s Yvette Lewis went from fourth place to a national champion in the triple jump at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento. Lewis, who a day earlier earned all-american honors in the 100-meter hurdles, jumped 45-00.50 to overtake Stanford’s Erica McLain (44-10.25) for first place.
Yvette Lewis at MEAC Championships
“Heading into my final jump all I could think about was not finishing fourth like I did last year,” said Lewis. “I hadn’t won since the 2006 indoor championships so I just tried to put everything together on my final attempt and things worked out.”
In what has become a great rivalry with McLain, Lewis was able to rebound from her second place finish at the indoor championships when the Stanford junior won the event and ended Lewis’ hopes of defending her 2006 national indoor triple jump title. With her victory on Saturday Lewis becomes Hampton’s first two-time national champion in track & field and the university’s only five-time all-american (4 - triple jump, 1 – 100-meter hurdles).
On the men’s side Hampton’s Andrew Peresta battled his way to a sixth place finish in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.85 to give the Pirates an all-american in the event for the second consecutive year after Terry Thornton garnered the honor in 2006.
After crushing his own a school record in the qualifying round, Maryland-Eastern Shore senior Kimani Kirton had a best throw of 18.88m (61’11.5”) to finish eighth overall in Saturday’s finals of the shot put. The MEAC Outdoor champion had advanced to the finals after placing seventh overall in the 26-man field.
As a result of their efforts, Lewis, Peresta and Kirton all earned all-american status for 2007.
Posted By: Jehan Bunch
Monday, June 11th 2007 at 8:39AM
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