Final Results
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Devynne Charlton finished runner-up in the women's 60-meter hurdles with a school record and national record Saturday at the NCAA Championships. The Purdue women finished with 12 points and tied for 14th in the country, the most points at the national meet in school history and the second highest finish.
"I thought we competed well," head coach Lonnie Greene said. "Savannah (Carson) yesterday in the long jump and Devynne today helped us have a good indoor campaign. Two more points would have gotten us 10th, but I'm pleased with our performance. Now, we just need to go back to work to get ready for the outdoor season. We have a great outdoor team that can make some noise. I'm excited to get going again for the women and men."
Charlton had a great start in the hurdles final and led going into the fourth hurdle. She clipped it, her only misstep of the day, but recovered to cross the line in 7.93 seconds to break her own school record and Bahamian national record by 0.04 of a second. Charlton was 0.03 of a second behind Oregon's Sasha Wallace to finish runner-up and earn eight points for the Boilermakers. She earned first team All-America honors, her second in the event after finishing third last year. She is the only Boilermaker in program history to earn first team All-America honors in the 60m hurdles.
"I think I had a pretty good race technically," Charlton said. "It all came down to that fourth hurdle. I think without that it would have been a near perfect race. I think I just knew it was my last chance to do something big in a Purdue uniform indoors so I had to make it my best race ever. I was disappointed to finish second. I saw the time and thought about all that it stood for. I have mixed emotions at this point, but I'm still content with what I did. I am happy with the team because our goal was to be top 15 and we met that goal. I think for us to be that good indoors is big because we're a much better outdoor team. I think outdoors we'll only get better."
The women's 4x400-meter relay team was also in action Saturday. The team of Symone Black, Chloe Abbott, Jahneya Mitchell and Brionna Thomas were in the second heat. The team ran a time of 3:32.32 to finish third in the heat. The time held up for 10th overall. The team earned second team All-America honors.
Charlton's eight points and Savannah Carson's four points from the long jump Friday gave the Boilermakers the highest total in program history, surpassing the 2001 team's 11 points when it finished 17th. The women's finish is the second highest in Purdue history behind only the 1984 team's t-11th place finish.
"I think we've come a long way as a program in a short period," Greene said. "The Lord has allowed us to do big things and has blessed us. It speaks to my staff. It speaks to the young people believing in what we're doing. We have a lot of talent coming back and we've signed some great athletes. We will keep working to make sure we will always be a power in the conference and at the national level."
The Boilermakers begin the outdoor season next week with a trip back to Texas for the UTSA Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Head coach Lonnie Greene was proud of his team at NCAAs. Check out the full interview here! #BoilerUp https://t.co/rDqbAAH90a
- PurdueTrack&Field (@PurdueTrackXC) March 12, 2017