Demar Francis of Baylor University lowered his Jamaican indoor record for the men’s 200m at last weekend’s NCAA Big12 Indoor Championships at Texas Tech in Lubbock after he ran 20.42 seconds in the preliminaries.

He later ran 20.60 to finish third overall.

Francis, the former Excelsior High runner who attended the University of South Dakota before transferring to Baylor, broke his old record of 20.46 which was set last year when he finished second in the Big12 championships.

There were two Jamaican indoor records set last weekend. Lamara Distin of Texas A&M University also broke her own women’s high jump best at the South-eastern Conference (SEC) in Arkansas, while 800m runner Kelly-Ann Beckford of the University of Houston moved into third place all time. Nickisha Pryce of the University of Arkansas ran 50.83 in the women’s 400m to edge closer to the national record.

Pryce, who was a semi-finalist in the women’s 400m at last year’s World Athletics Championships and a silver medallist in the women’s 4x400m relays, lowered her indoor personal best as she finished second at the SEC Championships. Her teammate Joanna Reid was seventh in 52.83.

Pryce, who also ran a personal best 22.62 for fourth in the 200m final, had run a then lifetime best 50.90 in the first round. She trails only Stephenie Ann McPherson (50.79) on the all-time Jamaica list after passing Sandie Richards.

Beckford, the former Albert Town High standout, ran a lifetime best 2:00.99 minutes which was also a University of Houston programme record and meet record as she won the Big12 women’s 800m, the first year her school moved from the American Conference.

Her time broke her own school record 2:02.59 and the meet record 2:02.98 set by Baylor University’s Aaliyah Miller in 2021, and she is now the third best Jamaican all-time behind Natoya Goule-Toppin’s national record 1:58.46 and Kenia Sinclair’s 1:59.54.

Former Clarendon College runner Dejanea Oakley of the University of Texas ran a personal best 51.75 seconds to win the Big12 women’s 400m and also clocked a lifetime best 22.86 for second in the 200m.

Shaemar Uter of Texas Tech University was second in the men’s 400m in 45.68.

In the SEC, Brianna Lyston of Louisiana State University won the women’s 60m in a meet record equalling 7.08 seconds, same time run by another Jamaican, Remona Burchell of the University of Alabama in 2015.

Luke Brown of the University of Kentucky won the men’s triple jump with 16.59m, with Apalos Edwards of the University of Arkansas fifth with a season’s best 15.93m.

JeVaughn Powell of the University of Florida was second in the men’s 400m in 45.61, with his teammate Reheem Hayles placing sixth in 46.58.

Tyreese Reid of Mississippi State ran a personal best 1:47.55 for second in the men’s 800m, the fourth best in the school’s history, while Kimar Farquharson of Texas A&M was fourth in 1:48.26.

Roje Stona of the University of Arkansas was third in the men’s shot put with a season’s best 19.94m with Kai Chang of the University of Florida fifth with a personal best 19.36m.

Rosealee Cooper of Mississippi State was sixth in the women’s 60m hurdles in a season’s best 8.11.

At the Ivy League championships held at Harvard, J’Voughnn Blake of Dartmouth College ran a lifetime best 1:49.11 seconds for second in the men’s 800m.