Track and field continues to dominate in shot put event

Altwayne Bedward’s impressive first-place performance was one of many personal bests for Troy’s track and field team this past weekend at the UAB Green & Gold Invite.

Bedward’s winning throw of 18.08m easily cleared his prior personal best of 17.80 meters and sits third all-time in Troy’s record books.

“We have so much more to improve on, but we continue to get better week-to-week,” said Director of Track and Field Marc Davis in a Troy Athletics press release. “If we can step up our game, we can compete extremely well.

“We just have to stick our noses in it and make things happen.”

Javon Osbourne also put up a podium finish in shot put with his throw of 17.09m, which secured him third.

Graduate student Biniosa Ezukuse snagged Troy’s third shot put podium finish of the meet with her third-place 14.90m throw.

Troy’s final podium finish of the meet came from freshman Haley Wilson’s speedy second place 1:33.56s finish in the women’s 600m.

Wilson’s first 600m time as a Trojan puts her in second place all-time in the Troy record book.

Jonas Koturenka finished fourth in the men’s 600m while dashing to a personal best of 1:21.11 in the men’s 600m.

Aaliyah Murphy finished fifth in the women’s 400m with a personal best of 55.79s while her teammate Lauren Gordon also ran a personal best at 1:00.56s.

Kristianna Ware strode to a personal record of 9.87s in the women’s 60m hurdles while placing 34th overall.

Imari Johnson set her own personal best in the women’s 200m at 25.08s en route to her 10th place finish.

Freshman Arianna Elder set a new personal record in the women’s mile, while graduate student Mario Tullis set one in the men’s 400m to finish 22nd in their respective events.

Finally, freshman Derrick Goll earned a spot in Troy’s record book as seventh all-time as he threw a personal best of 16.26m in the men’s weight throw.

The Trojans’ next meet will be Vanderbilt’s Music City Challenge on Feb. 14-15 in Nashville, Tennessee.