Men Indoor /Outdoor Season Outlook

The rebuilding process continues for Coach Young who completed his first year on November 17, 2005 as the head coach for the Women’s & Men cross country and track teams. Limited in budget the Trojans have to utilize all resources available to them. The recruitment process starts on campus and branches out locally and goes up the East Coast to New York and down the East Coast to Florida.

The Men’s program is coming off a second place finish in the conference and ranked 18^th at the National Outdoor Championship. We will attempt to duplicate last year’s conference finish without All-American Andre Faulcon who will be out due to personal reasons. However the Trojans are not short on talent, junior Joseph Williams (All-American Triple Jump Indoor 04-05) is still around and has started the year by qualifying provisionally for the Indoor National Championship in the Triple Jump with a leap of 47’ 1” (CNU lid-lifter 12/04/05) to put him Ranked #2 on the national list. Williams is expected to lead the Trojans in points from the Triple, Long and High Jumps.

Also returning is two-time defending CIAA Pole Vault Champion Sophomore Shannon Boling (Indoor 04-05 Outdoor 05), also in the pole-vault Shannon’s cousin, Kelly Bates who himself is a former CIAA Champion (04 outdoor season). Sophomore Omar Walden finished fourth in the conference last year returns as the best 400m runner. However, Walden will be pushed by sophomore Lamont Folsom, senior Anthony Payouway and freshman Jared Spencer from Midlothian, Virginia.

Other Trojans that Coach Young expects points from are freshman Clarence Crawley from Dinwiddie high school, senior Wilbert Sirenord from Florida, and junior Chester Rhoebuck all should provide points in the Shot Put. Junior Roy Rogers who placed in the Shot Indoors and Outdoors last year will join Sirenod and Rhoebuck. The best addition to the Trojans this year is the super freshman from Tidewater Sederick Green. He is coming off personal best in 3miles (16:42) and 5miles (28:31). He also was All-Conference in the Cross Country Championships 05. Sederick will provide help in the distance races throughout the season.

In the sprinting department Coach Young is looking for help from Ricardo Lacue who placed in the 100m and 200m last season and he was All-Conference in the triple jump. Lacue has been nursing a hamstring strain during conditioning season, also football player Carlos Spencer who has started the season by running Indoor PR’s in the 200m, 23.3 CNU 12/04 and an Indoor personal record 22.77 UMES 12/10 will help the Trojans cause. Veteran Anthony Payouway will also see some time in the short sprints this year as well as football player Dontae Edwards. In the hurdling department Davian Richards will look to add a big lift in the absence of Dwayne Jordan who placed seventh last year at the outdoor CIAA championships. Davian has run 8.89 this season in the 60MH. Another athlete to luck out for is Reggie Martin (triple jump).

“We have a lot of work to do, due to the fact that the conference is tough and the sooner our athletes realize this the better for us. The key is preparation we must train with a determination to progress daily for us to be successful. Barring injuries we have the potential to be in top three in our conference”. Coach Young.