Tuesday, April 20, 2010

For the second time during the 2010 outdoor campaign, junior Jarrett Mickens (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) has been named the Horizon League Male Field Athlete of the Week, this time after posting a pair of the best leaps in Crusader track and field history.

Mickens, going up against a stellar field of Division I athletes at the Dave Rankin Invitational last Saturday, set new career bests by more than a foot in both events that he competed in.  The junior leapt 23’10 ¾” in the long jump and 47’3” in the triple jump, both marks good for second-place finishes.

More impressively, however, both efforts moved Mickens into second all-time in the Crusader record books, as only a pair of leaps by Jeff Thomas back in 1976 bettered the distances registered by Mickens on Saturday.  Furthermore, with his marks from last weekend, the junior is now ranked first in the Horizon League in the long jump and second in the triple jump this year with the league’s Outdoor Championships just two weeks away.