Track And Field Picks Up Two Golds, Two Silvers Saturday

Friday, February 28

Birmingham, Ala.

9 am CT

University of Memphis

American Athletic Conference Championships

Paris Perkins, 2019-20 Women's Track and Field

Photo by: Michael Wade

Track And Field Picks Up Two Golds, Two Silvers Saturday

Feb 29, 2020 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

American Indoor Championships (Complete Results)

Paris Perkins wins silver in 400 meters in school-record fashion.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of Memphis' Iason Machairas and Jordan Wesner both won gold and DeeNia McMiller and Paris Perkins added two silvers to lead the Tigers track and field team in final-day action at the 2020 American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships Saturday. The Birmingham CrossPlex hosted the two-day meet.

Machairas took home gold in the men's shot put, and Wesner did the same in the men's long jump. On the women's side, McMiller won her second silver of the meet with a second-place finish in the shot put. She also placed second in the weight throw on Friday. Perkins won her silver in the 400 meters.

The men's team placed sixth at the meet, and the women seventh. The Memphis women scored the most points (54) at a conference indoor meet since 2015 (61.5 points).

Tigers Tidbits

Iason Machairas became only the second Memphis male thrower to win an American Athletic Conference throws championship. Luke Vaughn won the men's shot put in 2018.
Jordan Wesner became The American's first three-time champion in the men's high jump. He won titles in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The Tigers have won four of the seven men's high jump titles since the conference formed in 2013. Wesner has three, and Darius Lynwood won the 2014 crown.
Paris Perkins won her 400 meters silver in record-setting fashion. Her time of 53.71 is a school record, besting the previous mark of 53.91 set by Kala Funderburk in 2013.
Paris Perkins is the first Memphis female sprinter to win an individual title at The American indoor meet. She won the first female sprints medal since Kala Funderburk did so at the 2013 Conference USA Indoor Championships (gold in the 400m).
DeeNia McMiller is the first Tigers female thrower to win two medals at a conference indoor meet since 2008 when Susan King won gold in the shot put and silver in the weight throw (C-USA). In the 2007 C-USA Indoors, Gail Lee swept both crowns in the shot put and weight throw.
In placing second in the women's shot put, DeeNia McMiller had a personal-best effort. She surpassed her previous-best by 26 inches.
Robby Watson set a personal-best in the men's shot put by nearly 20 inches.
Kolbeinn Gunnarsson set a personal-best in the men's 200 meters with a time of 21.21. His previous-best was 21.32 in the preliminaries of the event at the 2017 American Athletic Conference Indoors.
Christian Hill improved on her previous-best in the women's triple jump by nearly 15 inches.
Three first-timers at the American Athletic Conference Indoors shattered their personal-bests in the women's 3000 meters. Sonsoles Martin Rodriguez improved her personal-best by nearly 40 seconds, Solstice Saliba by 38 seconds and Brooke Mussche by 25 seconds.
Other personal-bests set Saturday were: Payton Gleason in the men's 3000 meters; Mona Jaidi in the women's shot put; Hunter Miniard in the men's 60-meter hurdles; and Ladasia Walton in the women's high jump.

Men's Team Scores:1. Houston, 179; 2. Connecticut, 129; 3. Cincinnati, 101; 4. Tulsa, 79; 5. Wichita State, 59; 6. Memphis, 157; 7. ECU, 30; 8. USF, 29
Women's Team Scores:1. Houston, 84; 2. Cincinnati, 83.5; 3. Temple, 71; 4. SMU, 60.5; 5. Wichita State, 59; 6. ECU, 57; 7. Memphis, 54; 8. UCF, 52; 9. Connecticut, 43; 10. Tulane, 37; 11. USF, 31; 11. Tulsa, 31

Men's Results
60m (F) – 7. Calvin Austin III, 6.84
200m (F) – 4. Kolbeinn Gunnarsson, 21.21; 6. Calvin Austin III, 21.32; 7. Imri Persiado, 21.57
Mile (F) – 12. Zachary Wyatt, 4:23.21
3000m (F) – 8. Payton Gleason, 8:26.41; 11. Peter Kostarellis, 8:29.63; 30. Emmanuel Cullins, 9:11.25
60m Hurdles (F) – 7. Hunter Miniard, 8.30
4x400m Relay – 5. Memphis, 3his:17.19 (Hunter Miniard, Calvin Austin III, Adam Yakobi, Kolbeinn Gunnarsson)
High Jump – 1. Jordan Wesner, 7-1 (2.16m); 5. Noah Agnew, 6-9.75 (2.08m)
Triple Jump – 11. Sam Jones, 46-3.25 (14.10m)
Shot Put – 1. Iason Machairas, 59-0.25 (17.99m); 9. Robby Watson, 53-11.25 (16.44m); 8. Adar Sheere, 53-0 (16.15m); 10. Parker Evans, 49-11.25 (15.22m)

Women's Results
400m (F) – 2. Paris Perkins, 53.71
3000m (F) – 26. Brooke Mussche, 10:10.87; 39. Solstice Saliba, 10:33.26; 43. Sonsoles Martin Rodriguez, 10:41.13; 48. Brooke Calvo, 10:49.60; 51. Gabrielle Byndas, 11:11.71
4x400m Relay – 10. Memphis, 3:50.35 (Savanna Owens, Cori Davis, Reagan Casey, Paris Perkins)
High Jump – 4. Ladasia Walton, 5-9.25 (1.76m)
Triple Jump – 7. Christian Hill, 39-8 (12.09m); 10. Anastasia Bampali, 38-7 (11.76m)
Shot Put – 2. DeeNia McMiller, 51-10.5 (15.81m); 4. Mona Jaidi, 49-7.75 (15.13m); 7. Samantha Lenton, 46-8.25 (14.23m); 14. Kate Hise, 43.3-75 (13.20m)