Five Jamaicans led by personal best performances from former Hydel High School standouts Charokee Young and Trishauna Hemmings in the women’s 400m and 60m hurdles, respectively, were winners at indoor track and field meets in the USA on Friday.

Young, who represented Texas A&M University and Hemmings, who ran for Clemson, were joined in the winners’ circle by sprint hurdlers LaFranz Campbell of Clemson and Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Damion Thomas and Agerian Jackson of Southeastern Louisiana, who won the 600m event at the LSU invite.

Young’s new lifetime best of 52.64 seconds, up from the 53.08 seconds she ran last year, moved her up to second in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rankings and sixth-best all-time on the Texas A&M rankings.

Two other Jamaicans were in the race, former Manchester High School’s and Holmwood Technical’s Kavia Francis, a freshman at Baylor University was eighth in 56.22 seconds, and former St Elizabeth Technical runner Satanya Wright now at Texas Christian University was 11th with 56.83 seconds.

Hemmings, who was lowering her personal best for the third time this season, clocked 8.12 seconds at the Bob Pollock Invitational at Clemson, moving up to number three on the all-time Clemson University list.

Campbell made it a double for Clemson by taking the men’s 60m hurdle in a season’s best 7.85 seconds.

At the LSU Invitational, World Under-20 110m gold medallist Thomas won in 7.84 seconds, slower than his season’s best and NCAA third ranked 7.71 seconds.

Jackson, who attended Christian and Edwin Allen high schools in Jamaica and Butler Community College in Kansas before moving to Southeastern Louisiana University, won the 600m in 1 minute 22.67 seconds.

Meanwhile, three Jamaicans had personal best performances at the Razorback Invitational at University of Arkansas led by University of Oregon’s Kemba Nelson’s running 23.53 seconds for second in her first college 200m race.

The former Mt Alvernia High and University of Technology sprinter just missed a spot on the Oregon top 10 and was beaten only by University of Southern California’s Twanisha Terry who ran 23.35 seconds.

Nelson’s teammate, former Wolmers’ Boys Xavier Nairne, was fourth in the men’s race with a lifetime best 21.25 seconds, with Jamaica College runner Delano Dunkley of University of Georgia fifth with 21.27 seconds, also his best ever.

Former Inter-secondary Schools Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships long/triple jump winner Carey McLeod of University of Tennessee was third in the long jump at Clemson with a best mark of 7.90m, fourth in the NCAA and second in the South Eastern Conference.

Fabian Hewitt of Clemson University was sixth in the men’s 60m in 6.82 seconds at the Clemson meet, repeating his time from the preliminaries, while his teammate Jhevaughn Mattherson was 10th in prelims with 6.88 seconds and failed to advance.

Shaquille Lowe was sixth in the men’s long jump at the Arkansas meet with 7.17m, while Gabriel McDonald of Texas Tech ran 8.38 seconds in the preliminary round of the 60m hurdles and 7.67 seconds in the preliminary round of the 60m, qualifying for both finals but did not show up for either.