Five former County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Champs gold medallists were crowned champions at their respective US college indoor track and field championships last weekend, four in new personal best performances.

Ackeen Colley of Western Illinois University smashed the men’s 800m meet record at the Summit League Conference on Sunday; Owayne Owens of the University of Virginia dominated the men’s triple jump at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC); Asani Hylton of Stephen F Austin University won the high jump with a new lifetime best at the Southland Conference on Monday while Kimone Hinds of Northern Illinois University won the 60m at the Mid-American Conference, also in a new lifetime best.

South Dakota’s Brithon Senior was the fifth winner, defending his Summit League men’s 60m hurdles title, coming from behind to win in 7.99 seconds on Sunday.

The former Rusea’s High runner, who also ran the indoor 200m for the first time at the championships, remained unbeaten in the 60m hurdle all season but will be tested at the NCAA Division 1 championships in Arkansas next week.

Senior’s former Rusea’s High teammate Colley, who also attended Oklahoma University before switching to WIU this year, allowed yet another Rusea’s High athlete and teammate Richard Brown to lead early in the 800m final before he ran away from the field to win with 1:48.61 seconds, breaking the nine-year-old mark of 1:50.81 seconds set by Cameron Levins of Southern Utah in 2012.

Brown took third place in 1:51.37 seconds and both men teamed up with two other teammates to win the Distance Medley Relay in 10:02.56 seconds, the second-fastest time in WIU’s indoor history.

Owens rebounded from Friday’s disappointment when he fouled out of the long jump by winning his first indoor title with a personal best 16.48m.

The former Cornwall College athlete improved on his second place from last year and it was Virginia’s third-straight year winning the event after another Jamaican Jordan Scott won the previous two years.

Any of his five legal marks would have won the event as he was the only athlete in the field to go over the 16.00m mark on the day.

Hylton, who attended both Godfrey Stewart and Rhodes Hall High schools, cleared a personal best 2.13m to win the men’s high jump at the Southland Conference, improving on his third place last year.

He also scored a personal best 5,462 points for second place in the indoor heptathlon, also an improvement over last year.

Hinds, who attended Green Island High, ran a personal best 7.45 seconds to win the 60m but hobbled home in the final of the 200m in 35.60 seconds after she had led the preliminary round with a personal best 24.32 seconds.

Former Herbert Morrison runner Danniel Clarke of South Dakota State was fifth in the men’s 60m with 6.94 seconds at the Summit League conference while former Cornwall College thrower Nathan Reid finished 15th in the shot put at the Champs at the Peak met, hosted by the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

It was Reid’s first outing of the season and he finished 15th.