Feb. 1, 2003 — A number of V.I. track and field athletes continue to excel in the sport at some top United States colleges and universities.
The V.I. Track and Field Federation has announced that Laverne Jones, a graduate of St. Croix Educational Complex High School (ECHS), ran 7:41 in the 60 meters on Jan. 18 in the Oklahoma Track Classic and reached ninth on the current world list of female sprinters.
Jones transferred to Oklahoma University from Barton County Community College, where she had an outstanding two years on National Junior College Championship teams. Her debut as an Oklahoma Sooner was memorable: She won the 60-meter dash with 7.41, just .01 off the OU school record. The time also beat the NCAA provisional qualifying mark. She came back 30 minutes later to win the 200 meters with a 24.41.
Jones is the top female sprinter in the Virgin Islands; she was coached by Devon Peters at the ECHS and excelled in CARIFTA and the Penn Relays. She was a scholarship athlete at Barton in Kansas where she helped lead the team to national junior college championship titles. After graduating from Barton she became a scholarship athlete at the University of Oklahoma where she joins another Virgin Islander, Jabahri Brown, who is a star on the Sooner basketball team. The team is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation.
Jones is preparing to represent the Virgin Islands in the Pan American Games, the World Championships and the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
Other Virgin Islanders who are excelling on the track:
Vaughn Walwyn is a student/athlete at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and on Jan. 25 he qualified for the Pan American Games in the long jump with a jump of 25'2" at the Houston Indoor Opener at the Bill Yeoman Field House on the University of Houston campus. The senior all-America is also the reigning Western Athletic Conference champion, and finished third at last year's NCAA indoor championships with a jump of 26-3/4". Born Dec. 2, 1980, in St. Croix, he attended elementary school there before moving to Texas, where he finished high school at South Houston High School. He is the son of Wingrove and Catherina Walwyn of St. Croix, and he has one brother and four sisters. He's majoring in economics/ managerial studies…
Adrian Durant is a walk-on freshman track athlete at the University of South Carolina, which is currently ranked no. 4 among U.S. major colleges. On Jan. 25 Durant ran 48.61 in the 400 meters and was moved up to the "B" 4 X 400 relay team to take seventh place in the meet with a 3:19 and earn points for the team at the SEC Challenge at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky. He ran 21.84 in the 200 meters to place seventh overall in the meet. Durant is a former student at St. Mary's School. He transferred to Teaneck High School in New Jersey where he was a state Champion and received All-State honors. He is coached by Charles Golphin of The Hounds and Foxes Track Club of St. Croix.
Sherma Aurelien, a sophomore at Barton County Community College, took fourth place recently in the 600 meters at the University of Oklahoma Sooner Classic in 1:22.32. Aurelien graduated from the St. Croix Educational Complex High School (ECHS) before attending the college which has won American national championships the past two years, led by Laverne Jones who also is a graduate of Educational Complex.
Other V.I. athletes currently competing on the college level and looking to qualify are: Rodney Pitts at Abilene Christian College, Abilene, Texas; Kadi Joseph, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Md.; Lawrence Lockhart, Louisiana Sate University, Baton Rouge, La.; Julio Felix, Inter-American University in Puerto Rico and others.
For more information contact the V.I. Track and Field Federation at (340) 772-0212 or logon on to: the Federation's website.

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