With Earl Austin Jr.
STL at NCAA track championships
The St. Louis metropolitan area was well represented as last week’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento. Several area athletes finished the season as All-Americans after finishing in the top eight.
Former Alton High standout Jessica Stockard of the University of Georgia finished second in the women’s heptathlon with 5,794 points. Stockard entered the national meet ranked No. 1 in the event after winning the Southeastern Conference title last month. Stockard is a transfer from the University of Missouri where she was the Big XII Conference champion in the event.
Junior Amarachi Ukabam of Southern Illinois (Rockwood Marquette) earned All-American status in two events. Ukabam finished sixth in the shot put and seventh in the discus. Ukabam was also the NCAA Mideast Regional champion in the shot put and Missouri Valley Conference champion in both events. She was also an Indoor All-American during the winter.
Miles Smith of Southeast Missouri State (Riverview Gardens) finished fourth in the 400 in a time of 45.16 seconds. The winner of the race was Olympic gold medalist Donald Williamson of Baylor. The fifth-place finish concludes a stellar outdoor season for Smith, who led SEMO to the Ohio Valley Conference title and won the Mideast Regional title in Bloomington, Ind. two weeks ago.
Former East St. Louis star Dawn Harper of UCLA earned All-American honors for the second consecutive year when she finished third in the 100-meter high hurdles. Harper’s time was 12.91. Harper was a four-time state champion in the event at East St. Louis Senior High. Harper finished seventh in the event last year in helping UCLA win the 2004 national title.
Senior Leon Watson of Oregon (Parkway West) qualified for the NCAA meet in both the long jump and triple jump, but he did not place in either event. SEMO’s 4×400-meter relay team of Miles Smith, Alonzo Nelson (East St. Louis), Chris Poindexter (McCluer North) and Chaz Brown (Parkway North) also qualified, but did not place in the top eight. Stephen Pifer of Colorado (Edwardsville) competed in the 1,500-meter run and finished in 12th place.
Shimmy nabs Lisch
New Saint Louis University women’s basketball coach Shimmy Gray received a big boost early in her tenure when she got an oral commitment from point guard Theresa Lisch of Belleville Althoff. The 5’9″ Lisch is the top returning player in the St. Louis area and one of the top players in the state of Illinois. Lisch can sign an official national letter of intent in November to make it official. She is the younger sister of Kevin Lisch, who will be a freshman basketball player at SLU in the fall.
Shimmy Gray also added St. Louisan Petra Jackson to her staff as an assistant coach. A former star player at University City and Southern Illinois in the 1980’s, Jackson spent the past three seasons as the head coach at Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Wash. Jackson also spent three years playing professionally with the St. Louis RiverQueens of the Women’s Basketball Association during the mid-1990s. She had local head coaching stints at Harris-Stowe State College and Forest Park Community College.
Nike Hoops Jamboree this week
The Nike Hoops Jamboree will be held this week at Saint Louis University from Wednesday to Saturday. The Jamboree features more than 100 of the top high school basketball underclassmen in the country. The top players will be selected to participate in the Nike All-American Camp in July. One area player selected to the camp is Torres Roundtree, a 6’3″ guard from McCluer North. Roundtree is the brother of former Cardinal Ritter star and Duke All-American Chris Carrawell. Also participating will be A.J. Hawkins, a 6’6″ forward who played the final month of the season at Lafayette High. Hawkins will be moving to Georgia at the end of the summer.
Ragsdale to St. Augustine
Normandy High track standout Lynetta Ragsdale recently signed a national letter of intent to attend St. Augustine College, a NCAA Division II school in Raleigh, N.C. Ragsdale finished fourth in the 100-meter high hurdles at last month’s Missouri Class 4 state track meet in Jefferson City. She was also the Suburban North Conference champion in the 100-meter high hurdles and 300-meter low hurdles. A top student in the classroom, Ragsdale will pursue a career in nursing.