By: By Hunter McKay
ASUN Release
KENNESAW, Ga. –
Dayo Akindele and
Paris Williams swept the ASUN Men's Track and Field Athlete of the Week honors the conference announced on Wednesday (Feb.7).
In his only track event of the weekend, Akindele posted a career-best time of 7.95 in the 60m-hurdles final to finish second overall at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational. That time leads the ASUN and ranks 43
rd nationally this season. That time is also the third-fastest time in program history. This is his second career ASUN Indoor Track Athlete of the Week Award and fourth ASUN weekly honor this season.
"We changed Dayo's step pattern to hurdle one this year to allow him to get there in better position.," director of track and field
Andy Eggerth said. "It's been a little bit of a challenge, but it's great to see it staring to come together for him with a personal record and breaking the 8 second barrier for his first time ever. He still had a really slow reaction time out of the blocks and had to play catch up during the race, so I believe he's capable of going under 7.90 at conference and having a realistic shot at the KSU and ASUN records."
Williams finished third at the Queens University combined events with a career-best total of 5020 points. He finished third in the high jump after clearing 1.85m (6'0.75") and second in the long jump with a leap of 6.87m (22'6.5). This is his first career ASUN Athlete of the week honor.
"It takes a lot of time to develop a combined event athlete with the several disciplines they need to learn to execute from a biomechanical perspective and to develop the biomotor abilities to perform at a high level," Eggerth said. "In only Paris's sophomore year he is developing at a rapid pace, but he is just scratching the surface of how good he can become. I expect he'll fairly easily score over 5000 points at the ASUN championship and by his junior year have very realistic ambitions of going to the indoor NCAA Championship. These two are ones to watch at the ASUN Championship as they'll probably be batting for the recognition of the ASUN's Most Valuable Performer."
The Owls will travel to Lynchburg, Virginia to compete at the ASUN Championships Feb.16-17.
Keep up with Owls track and field teams by following KSU on Twitter at @KSUOwlNation and @KSUTrackFieldXC or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.
