Jamaicans Ackelia Smith of the University of Texas and Luke Brown of the University of Kentucky set NCAA leading marks in the women’s long jump and men’s triple jump events respectively on Saturday while there were wins for high jumper Lamara Distin and Shaquena Foote.

Meanwhile, there were meet records for the Clemson University pair of Daniel Cope and Marie Forbes in the weight throw event at the Ted Nelson Invitational at Texas A&M, College Station, Texas.

Smith, who competed in the last two World Championships, jumped a season’s best 6.73m to win the women’s long jump at the Dr Martin Luther King Collegiate Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center, New Mexico on Saturday.

Her teammate, Aaliyah Foster, who was last year’s girls’ Class 1 champion at the Boys and Girls Athletics Championships, was fourth with an indoors best 6.17m.

At the Corky Classic held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Brown broke his own school triple jump record when he won with 16.80m, beating his previous best of 16.69m set last February.

Shaquena Foote of San Diego State University set two personal bests while breaking the San Diego State program record in the women’s 400m when she finished second overall in 53.30 seconds, behind Lanae Tava Thoms’ 51.97 seconds while beating World Championships finalist Candice McLeod- 53.31 seconds.

She also won the women’s ‘unseeded’ 200m with an indoor personal best of 23.47 seconds.

World Championships fifth place finisher Distin broke her own meet record at the Ted Nelson Invitational after clearing 1.94m to open her season in the high jump.

She broke the record of 1.88m that she had set in 2022.

Cope threw a meet record 20.85m in the men’s weight throw, breaking 20.28m set by Austin Cooke of Texas A&M in 2018 while Forbes threw 20.84m, just shy of a metre longer than the 19.85m set by Erin Atkinson of Baylor in 2014.

Courtney Lawrence also of Clemson threw a personal best 18.32m to win the men’s shot put, beating Brandon Lloyd of Arizona State who also had a lifetime best 18.01m.

Kevona Davis of the University of Texas won the women’s 300m at the Albuquerque meet, running 37.28 seconds for second behind Dina Asher Smith’s 36.77 seconds while her teammate Dejanae Oakley was third in 37.43 seconds and jumper Smith was seventh in 37.93 seconds.

Oakley Texas was also fifth in the women’s 60m in 7.53 seconds.

Daniel Sloley, who transferred to Arizona State, threw 15.42m in the women’s shot put.

Kelly-Ann Beckford of the University of Houston ran 2:07.09 seconds to win the women’s 800m, the 10th best time in the NCAA so far this year while Brandon Pottinger was joint third in the men’s high jump with a season’s best 2.06m.

Rhianna Phipps of Nebraska won the women’s triple jump at the Mark Colligan Memorial in Nebraska with 12.51m while her teammate Lotavia Brown was third with 11.97m.

Daniella Anglin of the University of South Dakota was third in the high jump with 1.73m, while Kavian Kerr of Nebraska ran 21.64 seconds in the men’s 200m.

-Paul A Reid