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DyeStat.com – News – Alyssa Bearzi Enjoys Big 5,000 Win, Shawnti Jackson Secures Sprint Victory at Camel City Invitational

DyeStat.com - News - Alyssa Bearzi Enjoys Big 5,000 Win, Shawnti Jackson Secures Sprint Victory at Camel City Invitational

Milligan standout improves by 14 seconds to clock 17:06.10, elevate to No. 4 in NAIA history on indoor 200-meter track; Jackson shines in 60-meter dress rehearsal for return to Millrose Games in New York, with Duke’s King taking women’s pole vault and Montreat’s Blevins winning men’s long jump

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Alyssa Bearzi has experienced the joy and satisfaction that comes with winning an NAIA national title.

The Australian standout at Milligan College in Tennessee has also endured the disappointment and frustration of being the top seed entering an NAIA championship race and not being able to deliver her best performance in the final.

Bearzi, the 2021 NAIA cross country winner, demonstrated Friday at the Camel City Invitational that she is highly motivated to contend once again for the indoor 5,000-meter crown, running a lifetime-best 17 minutes, 6.10 seconds at JDL Fast Track.

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Bearzi relied on the exceptional pacing through 4,600 meters by NAIA champion and record holder Emily Kearney – a British competitor representing New Balance who won titles at both SCAD Atlanta and Milligan – to lower her personal best by 14 seconds from last year’s NAIA semifinals in South Dakota, before finishing 11th in the final.

Bearzi elevated to No. 4 in NAIA history on a 200-meter indoor track, with the flat track conversion at JDL Fast Track giving the sophomore an adjusted mark of 16:58.15. She also became the first NAIA female competitor in meet history to win the 5,000.

Kearney boasts the fastest NAIA indoor 5,000 performance in history by clocking 16:17.89 for SCAD Atlanta at the 2020 Appalachian Athletic Conference Championships at JDL Fast Track, also a top 10 performance among all collegiate women’s athletes at the facility.

Although Bearzi’s effort was one of several strong achievements by collegiate competitors Friday, one of the top high school athletes in the country excelled as well.

Shawnti Jackson, an Arkansas-bound senior at South Granville High in North Carolina, won the women’s 60-meter dash in 7.31 seconds after clocking 7.30 in the prelims.

Jackson, who earned gold, silver and bronze medals representing the United States at the World U20 Championships in August in Colombia, returns Feb. 11 to race at the 115th Millrose Games at The Armory, the site…

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