Ballance-Gray claims individual event title at the Jim Green Invitational

Jacksonville, Ill.-The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners men's track and field team put together a strong performance at the Jim Green Invitational hosted by Illinois College on Saturday, Feb.7 in Jacksonville, Ill. The event took place inside King Fieldhouse.

SFCC came home with eight top eight finishes at the event. Sophomore Zeshaun Ballance-Gray of Kansas City, Mo. continued his strong season winning the triple jump with a jump of 14.57 meters.

The Roadrunners finished third in the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:35.41. The team consisted of sophomore Steven Skelton of Waynesville, Mo., freshman Colby Jenkins of Brunswick, Mo., freshman TJ Brown of Independence, Mo., and Ballance-Gray. Freshman Gage Marshall of Middletown, Mo. finished third in the high jump with a jump of 1.78 meters. Freshman Cash Anderson of Kansas City, Mo. placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.86.

Freshman Tony Linhart of Milan, Mo. finished fourth in the pole vault with a height of 3.50 meters.

Brown placed sixth in the long jump with a distance of 6.46 meters.

The Roadrunners 4x400-meter relay finished seventh with a time of 3:41.81. The team consisted of Skelton, freshman Sam Tagtmeyer of Sedalia, Mo., Marshall and freshman Hayden Krentz of Hamilton, Mo.

Jenkins finished eighth in the pole vault with a height of 3.05 meters.

"On Saturday, we took a strong group of athletes to Jacksonville, Ill., to compete at the Jim Green Invitational," said assistant coach Kellin Loch. "This meet was a fantastic opportunity for our team, in its entirety, to be competitive and successful. We walked away from the meet with 17 top 10 performances combined with our men's and women's teams. Coming out of a meet with four wins and 13 more strong finishes combined between the teams should instill some confidence in our athletes and assure them that they deserve to be here and competing in collegiate athletics."

SFCC will return to action on Saturday, Feb. Feb. 14 at the Darren Young Classic hosted by Grinnell College.

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics