JAMAICANS Jaydon Hibbert, Romaine Beckford and Phillip Lemonious were winners as the men’s section of the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships ended on Friday at Mike A Myers stadium in Austin, Texas.

Hibbert of the University of Arkansas completed a perfect first season by winning the triple jump; Beckford added the outdoor high jump title to the indoors he won earlier with a personal best and University of South Florida programme record; while Lemonious, also of Arkansas, completed a brilliant comeback after a miserable and accident-filled 2022 season.

Up to Friday’s session, with one day to go on Saturday, Jamaicans had swept all the jumping titles, as Carey McLeod of Arkansas and Ackelia Smith of the University of Texas winning the men’s and women’s long jump events, respectively.

Also on Friday, Roje Stona was second in the discus throw and Kevin Nedrick placed fifth.

Hibbert’s winning mark of 17.56m (-0.3m/s) came in the first round as he added to the NCAA indoor title he won in March as well as the South Eastern Conference (SEC) indoor and outdoor titles he also won earlier in the season.

Owayne Owens of the University of Virginia was sixth with 16.36m (1.1m/s) and Malik Cunningham of Villanova was seventh in a personal best 16.17m, both also earning All-American status.

Arkansas athletes McLeod could only manage a season’s best 15.99m (1.1m/s) for 11th place and Ryan Brown was 12th with 15.89m (-0.2m/s). Apalos Edwards of Louisiana State failed to show for the event.

Lemonious ran a lifetime best 13.24 seconds (1.8m/s) to end his college career on a high as Giano Roberts of Clemson was fifth in 13.31 seconds, also his best ever.

Lemonious, who had failed to qualify for the outdoor nationals last year after he fell during the regional qualifiers, raced sparingly this season but was second in the SEC outdoors.

Beckford, who had won the indoor title, cleared a personal best and school record 2.27m, the second-best ever by a Jamaican man to win a very competitive event.

Beckford — whose previous best was 2.24m and who moved up from joint eighth best on the Jamaican list to second, only behind the late Germaine Mason’s 2.34m — beat Oklahoma’s Vernon Turner on the countback as both men cleared the same height but failed at 2.30m.

Zayne Palomino of Southern Mississippi finished 20th with a clearance of 2.06m.

Stona, who led at least twice during the competition, finished second in the discus throw with a best of 65.55m, beaten in the final round by Arizona State’s Turner Washington who achieved 66.22m with the final throw of the competition.

Kevin Nedrick of Liberty University , who recorded two personal best marks, finished in fifth place with 61.93m while Ralford Mullings of Arkansas was 16th with 57.68m.

JeVaughn Powell contributed to the University of Florida’s slim championship winning total when he placed seventh in the 400m in 45.32 seconds.

Along with teammates Emmanuel Bamidele who won and Ryan Willie who was second, they contributed 20 of Florida’s 57 points as they beat Arkansas by four points and retained the men’s title.