Former Cornwall College athletes Nathan Reid and Tarique Gooden had their first college wins last weekend, taking the top spots in the discus throw at the Kit Mayer Classic and the 400m hurdles at the James Madison Invitational, respectively.

Both athletes, who left the island last August to take up their scholarship offers, had missed significant periods of training due to illnesses, and had struggled earlier.

Meanwhile, former Mt Alvernia High sprinter Kemba Nelson and former Cornwall College jumper Owayne Owens, continued to set the pace as both achieved personal best results in wins also on the weekend.

Reid, who attends the University of Wyoming, had a solid outing at the Kit Mayer Classic hosted by the Colorado School of Mines, winning with 51.88m, beating his previous best of 48.90m set March 27 at the Colorado State Pueblo Spank Blasing Open.

He had improved his personal best twice at the meet after throwing 51.71m in the first round, a mark that was good enough to win the competition, then improved on it in the fourth round.

Reid also participated in the shot put where he was sixth with a best mark of 14.12m.

Gooden, last year’s Western Champs gold medallist who attends Morgan State University, clocked a college best 55.83 seconds as he won the intermediate hurdles at the James Madison event.

The athlete who has a best of 53.84 seconds set while winning at Western Champs last year, had opened his 400m hurdles season with a 56.05 seconds run a week earlier at the North Carolina A&T Aggie Open.

His Morgan State teammate and former Western Champs gold medallist Kobe-Jordan Rhooms was second in the men’s high jump with a clearance of 1.95m.

Nelson, the University of Oregon runner who has started her NCAA career with a bang, set personal bests in the 100m- 11.18 seconds (1.0m/s) and the 200m-23.03 seconds (0.4m/s) at the West Coast Classic at the University of Arizona on Saturday night.

Her time in the 100m smashed the old time of 11.49 seconds set in 2019 and is the seventh best all-time at the University of Oregon and second best by any Jamaican woman so far this year.

She placed second in the 200m, beaten to the tape by Shae Anderson of UCLA who ran 22.96 seconds, and beat her previous best 23.57 seconds.

Owens of the University of Virginia, won the triple jump at the Virginia Challenge with a personal best 16.45m (-0.1m/s) and just missed taking over second place on the University of Virginia (UVA) all- time men’s outdoor triple jump.

The ACC indoor champion improved to number five on the NCAA outdoors list and extended his lead in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Another former Cornwall College athlete Jonhoi Clarke of Campbell University was sixth in the discus throw at the South Carolina Open with 48.25m and ninth in the shot put with 15.39m.