CLEMSON, SOUTH CAROLINA, January 28-28 — With loaded fields in many events at the Pollock Invitational, few expected one of the biggest meet highlights to come from a frosh, but North Carolina A&T coach Duane Ross wasn’t surprised at all that yearling Leonard Mustari broke the American Junior Record in the 60H with a powerful 7.58 win.
“He has so much more left,” said Ross. “He’s going to surprise a lot of people, but I won’t be one of them.”
Of the race itself, Ross says, “He was really good with his acceleration through the first two. We’ve really been working on that. Where we can continue to make improvement is, he tends to rush the hurdles a little bit. He had been coming off hurdle 5 and literally dipping that moment. But Saturday, he stood up off of hurdle 5 and accelerated through the finish line.
“He’s finding his rhythm. He came in [last fall] with just no fear and looked at me and said, ‘Hey coach, what do you need me to do? I want to be a national champion.’”
Coming into the weekend, the AJR stood at 7.68, an altitude-aided time by Miami’s Artie Burns in ’14. Mustari, just a couple of weeks past his 19th birthday, took care of that in the heats with a 7.64, and broke it again in the final.
Those weren’t the only AJRs of the meet. In a 3000 won by Florida State’s Adriaan Wildschutt (7:52.80), unheralded Wake Forest frosh (academic soph) Luke Tewalt ran 7:56.26 in 5th, nipping the U20 best 7:56.31 Chris Derrick ran for Stanford in ’09.
There was record action on the women’s side as well. Two weeks after a mismeasurement confused the Collegiate Record situation in the triple jump, Florida’s Jasmine Moore put things right, leaping 47-9 (14.55) to add an inch to Keturah Orji’s mark of 47-8 (14.53) set on the same runway four years ago. The Gator soph’s big leap came on her second attempt in a solid series that averaged 47-1 (14.35) for her 4 legal jumps. She moved to No. 3 all-time among Americans.
Teammate Grace Stark, already the collegiate leader in the hurdles, ran the 60 sans barriers and took her PR from her prep 7.40 to a 7.12 in the semis. That moved her into a tie for No. 8 all-time among American collegians. She captured the final in 7.14 ahead of fellow Gator Semira Killebrew (7.21).
A solid 200 saw NCA&T go 1-2, with Javonte Harding (20.33) and Randolph Ross (20.57) both topping Florida’s Jacory Patterson (20.91.). Patterson had won the 400 the day before in 45.98.
In the 4×4, the Gators built a big lead that allowed Patterson the breathing room to cross the line first with his 45.61 anchor, clocking 3:03.21. North Carolina A&T finished a stride behind in 3:03.39, with Ross closing in 44.13.
POLLOCK INVITATIONAL RESULTS
(200 banked)
60: 1. *PJ Austin (Fl) 6.63. 200: I-1. **Javonte Harding (NCAT) 20.33; 2. *Randolph Ross (NCAT) 20.57; 3. *Jacory Patterson (Fl) 20.91. 400: 1. Patterson 45.98. 800: 1. Rajay Hamilton’ (Jam) 1:49.81.
3000: 1. *Adriaan Wildschutt’ (FlSt-SA) 7:52.80;
… 5. ***Luke Tewalt (WF) 7:56.26 AJR (old AJR 7:56.31 Chris Derrick [Stan] ‘09) (in/out: 7, 7 AJ).
60H: 1. ***Leonard Mustari (NCAT) 7.58 AJR (old AJR 7.64 Mustari in heats). Heats: I–1. Mustari 7.64 AJR (old AJR 7.68[A] Artie Burns [Mia] ’14; old lo-alt AJR 7.69 Chad Zallow [Youngstown State] ’16).
4 x 400: 1. Florida 3:03.21 (Willie 46.08, Miley 46.12, Allison 45.40, Patterson 45.61); 2. North Carolina A&T 3:03.39 (Stokes 46.39, Young 45.89, Lindo 46.98, Ross 44.13).
HJ: 1. Darius Carbin (unat) 7-3¾ (2.23). LJ: 1. Ja’Von Douglas (NCSt) 26-6¼ (8.08). TJ: 1. **Chris Alexander (NCSt) 51-9¼ (15.78). SP: 1. *Jordan West (Tn) 62-6½ (19.06). Wt: 1. Georgios Korakidis’ (Tn-Gre) 68-1½ (20.76).
POLLOCK WOMEN
60: 1. **Grace Stark (Fl) 7.14.
Semis: III–1. Stark 7.12 (=8, x AmC).
200: 1. Kayla White (Nik 22.82. 400: 1. ***Talitha Diggs (Fl) 52.00. 800: 1. *Sarah Hendrick (KennSt) 2:04.55. Mile: 1. Maudie Skyring’ (FlSt-Aus) 4:36.75. 3000: 1. *Lauren Ryan’ (FlSt-Aus) 9:07.19.
60H: 1. Paula Salmon (NCAT) 7.89 (=9, =11 C; =8, =10 AmC).
4 x 400: 1. Florida 3:31.61 (Manson, Hall, Lester, Diggs);
2. North Carolina A&T 3:39.38; 3. Clemson 3:39.43.
HJ: 1. Kenya Livingston (Clem) 5-10¾ (1.80). PV: 1. ***Chloe Timberg (Rut) 13-9¾ (4.21). LJ: 1. Akela Jones’ (Bar) 21-10¼ (6.66).
TJ: 1. **Jasmine Moore (Fl) 47-9 (14.55) CR (old CR 47-8/14.53 Keturah Orji [Ga] ’18) (3, =4 A; in/out: 3, x A; 2, 2 C) (46-10¼[3, x A; 3, =6 C; 2, =5 AmC], 47-9, f, 46-8, 47-1 [3, x A; 3, =6 C; 2, =5 AmC], p) (14.28, 14.55, f, 14.22, 14.35, p).
SP: 1. Latavia Maines (Tn) 53-11¼ (16.44). Wt: 1. Whitney Simmons-Grubb (unat) 67-6 (20.57). Pent: 1. **Anna Hall (Fl) 4370 (8.39, 5-8/1.73, 43-4¼/13.21, 18-5/5.61, 2:09.99). ◻︎