Smith Records Clemson’s Best Triple Jump of the Season

May 21, 2000

ATLANTA, GA – Sophomore Sheri Smith posted the best triple jump by a Clemson Tiger this season on Saturday when she cleared 40-8 3/4 at the Georgia Tech Invitational.

The measure is the fifth-best effort outdoor triple jump in school history, bettering the mark of 40-3 1/4 set by Monyetta Haynesworth in 1993. She just missed the fourth-best jump of 40-9 set by Jessica Hartikainen in 1998.

Smith finished 14th in a field that included 24 competitors. She was seventh among collegians. Her previous personal best was 39-10, which she was taped last week at the Orange & Purple Classic at Clemson. She has gradually gotten better each week. She opened the season with a leap of 38-4 3/4 at the Clemson Invitational in March. The mark is six and a half inches below the NCAA provisional standard.

LaShonda Cutchin was clocked at 53.45 in the 400m. She finished sixth in the event and was the third collegian behind Florida State’s Samantha George and Notre Dame’s Liz Grow. It was her third-best time of the season and the fourth time she has posted a provisional mark. Her season-best time of 53.34 was timed last week in Clemson.

Keke Elder finished 11th in the preliminary round of the 100m hurdles. Her time of 13.60 equaled her third-best time of the season and was the fifth time this year she has run faster than the provisional mark set by the NCAA for its championship May 31-June 3 at Duke University. She did not compete in the event final.

Shannon Murray was 21st in the 100m. Her time of 12.14 was her third best of the year. She ran 12.07 last week at the Orange & Purple Classic.

The only other competitor was Nyjla Littlejohn who finished 15th in the 400m intermediate hurdles. She finished in a time of 1:00.57. She had just won the event at the Gatorad Twilight Classic Thursday night in Knoxville with a time of 59.90, her fourth-best effort of the season.