Deveaux is NJCAA triple jump champ

HUTCHINSON — J’Vente Deveaux is Allen County Community College’s newest NJCAA national champion. Deveaux captured the NJCAA 2011 outdoor track triple jump title last Friday.
The 2011 NJCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships were at Hutchinson Community College’s Gowans Stadium. The meet was Thursday through Saturday.
Deveaux set the ACCC triple jump mark at 53 feet, 111⁄4 inches in April at the Ole Miss Invitational in Oxford, Miss. He didn’t get out that far at the national meet but was the best in the field.
The sophomore from Nassau, Bahamas, won the national triple jump with a leap of 52’23⁄4”. Deveaux had placed third in the event at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March at 51’91⁄4”.
Allen County’s 4×400-meter relay team finished fourth at the national meet Saturday. The foursome set a new ACCC record in running the race at 3 minutes, 10.69 seconds.
On the relay team were sophomore John Thurston, Oskaloosa, and freshmen Darrlyn Bennett of Dayton, Ohio, DeMario Johnson of Junction City and Brandon Miller of Nassau, Bahamas.
Johnson finished fifth in the 400-meter dash final in 48.4 seconds. Sophomore Trent Huling ran a 47.97 qualifying time to make the finals but did not finish. Miller also ran in the preliminaries of the 400 at 48.74 seconds.
Sophomore Kyran Stewart of Camilla, Ga., and freshman Chris Henry of Kansas City, Mo., ran in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash but did not make the finals. Huling and Henry competed in the 200-meter preliminaries but did not make the finals.
Olnel Virgil ran in the 110-meter high hurdle preliminaries and Jean Frenot competed in the 400-meter hurdle preliminaries. The two sophomores from Wauchula, Fla., did not make finals.
Allen County’s 4×100-meter relay team of Henry, Huling, Johnson and sophomore Zach Baldwin, Kansas City, Kan., had a false start.
The lone ACCC woman competing in the national meet was freshman Audree’Ahna Harris of Junction City. She ran 15.15 in the preliminaries of the 100-meter high hurdles and did not qualify for the finals.