BIRMINGHAM, Ala – The Arkansas State Men’s Indoor Track team are your 2018 Sun Belt Champions. The Red Wolves are now tied with Middle Tennessee State for the most titles in Sun Belt history.
The Red Wolves didn’t just come to win, they came to break records.
Senior Jaylen Bacon claimed his second Arkansas State record (already owning the 60M record) by finishing the 200M in a mere 21.14 seconds.
Fellow Red Wolf senior Elijah Ross challenged Bacon’s school record for the 60M (6.56 seconds in 2017), but came up just short, finishing the race with a time of 6.74 seconds, good enough for second-best in Arkansas State history. Ross also finished with the eighth-best time in school history in the 200M, with a time of 21.71 seconds.
Neither Ross nor Bacon could top Ed Preston’s school record for the 55M (6.14 seconds in 1976), but finished with the fifth (6.27 seconds) and sixth (6.28 seconds) best times, respectively.
More importantly than school records, though, the Red Wolves left Birmingham victorious. The following documents how various Arkansas State student-athletes finished in their respective competitions to bring home the team title.
- Bacon was able to claim first place in both the 60M and 200M, while Ross finished third and eighth. Bacon became the first Red Wolf to ever sweep those two races.
- Senior Jamil Peeples claimed second place in the 60M Hurdles with a final time of 8.05 seconds.
- The trio of Bacon, Ross and Peeples paired with Landon Abernathy claimed third place in the 4×400 Relay, finishing just 2.80 seconds behind first-place UT-Arlington.
- Junior Tiaan Steenkamp claimed the High Jump title with a mark of 2.09m, while fellow Red Wolf David Phillips finished second.
- Michael Carr won the Pole Vault finals for Arkansas State with a mark of 5.28m.
- Carter Shell finished second in the Long Jump with a mark of 7.44m and Peeples finished third with a mark of 7.32m.
- Shell finished second in the Triple Jump with a final distance of 14.73m.
- Itamar Levi came in second in the Shot Put finals, finishing just 0.11m behind first place
- In the Weight Throw finals, Cristian Ravar Ladislau finished in second-place with a distance of 19.10m.
- Hayden Hampton and Coleton Clifft finished third and fourth in the Heptathlon finals.
Arkansas State finished with a score of 145, besting UT-Arlington by only two points.
Sun Belt Championship Final Standings
| Men’s Team Standings | Score |
| Arkansas State | 145 |
| UT Arlington | 143 |
| Texas State | 101 |
| South Alabama | 76 |
| Appalachian State | 73 |
| Louisiana | 58 |
| Louisiana-Monroe | 50 |
| UA Little Rock | 15 |
And you thought Arkansas State was just a football school.
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All scores and statistics via TFRRS.org, all school records via astateredwolves.com.
Photo courtesy of Sun Belt Conference
