FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – For the fifth time in program history, the Nova Southeastern University men's and women's track and field teams claimed three of the four Peach Belt Conference weekly awards, announced Tuesday. Sherrelle Jordan was named the women's track athlete of the week, while Jazmine Elleston and Stefan Matula swept the field athlete of the week honors.
"That is awesome to take three of the four weekly awards," head coach Bryan Hagopian said. "This shows that the hard work in practice and in the weight room is paying off. This is the exclamation point to a successful start to the 2017 season, and we will continue to work hard to prepare for conference and nationals."
Jordan takes her first weekly accolade of the season, and fourth all-time, after her solid performances at the Shark and Miami Hurricane Invitationals. The Chandler, Arizona native set two meet records at the Shark Invitational in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, while finishing first in the 200m dash with a time of 25.88s. At the Miami Invitational, Jordan claimed second overall in the 100m hurdles in a race of mainly Division I athletes. In the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, Jordan contributed to both teams running season-best times of 46.67s and 3:54.05s, respectively, while standing atop the conference rankings in the events.
Elleston and Matula captured their first individual weekly awards as both broke school records to open the official outdoor season. At the Shark Invitational, Elleston increased her provisional mark while also setting career-best and institutional records in the triple jump with a mark of 12.18m. The Piscataway, New Jersey native then set a personal-best in the long jump at the Miami Hurricane Invitational, jumping 5.60m. With those results, Elleston is now ranked third in the long jump and leads the conference in the triple jump.
Matula started the week by setting a meet record in the pole vault at the Shark Invitational with a conference-leading 4.20m jump. The Alteglofsheim, Germany native went even higher at the Miami Invitational, increasing his season-best and conference mark to 4.40m. Matula then set a school record in the long jump with a third-place leap of 6.79m.
The Sharks will be back in action Saturday, March 25 to compete in the Florida Division II Challenge, hosted by Embry-Riddle.
