Results

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Amirah Al-Bayyinah led a stellar team performance in the long jump and the Coastal Carolina women find themselves in a familiar second-place position after Thursday's first day of the Big South Championships.

Al-Bayyinah won the long jump title and was among four Chanticleers to place among the top five in the event, providing Coastal with 25 of its 46 points on the opening day. With six events scored, Liberty's total of 68.5 points leads the meet. The Flames were in front after the first day each of the last two years before the Chants overtook their rivals to claim the championships.

Al-Bayyinah captured her second Big South indoor title, her third conference crown overall and her first in the long jump with a winning mark of 5.68 meters (18-7.75). She improved her distance on each of the four attempts that were not fouls, posting 5.67 and 5.68 meters on her final two jumps to win by .09 meters over Campbell's Lilla Juhasz.

Al-Bayyinah ranked first in the conference in the long jump going into last year's meet, but finished a disappointing 10th before bouncing back the next day to win the triple jump title. The junior had not competed in the long jump this season since the opening meet at Virginia Tech.

Teammates Teka Simpson, Kelila Naules and Courtney Lawson backed up Al-Bayyinah by finishing third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Simpson had a mark of 5.56 meters (18-3) to notch All-Big South honors, with Naules and Lawson each recording marks of 5.48 meters (17-11.75). The distance was a personal best for Naules and came on her last attempt.

Letitia Saayman provided eight points with a second place finish in a tightly-contested 3,000-meter race to notch her third career All-Big South indoor individual honor and second in the event. Saayman clocked a time of 9:52.68, just .11 seconds behind Liberty's Ednah Kurgat. Teammate Kyla van Graan took fourth place in a time of 9:57.28 to add five points.

Saayman also anchored the distance medley relay team to second place with a time of 12:20.04. She was joined by Regina Peattie, Takeyra Jenkins-Dodd, and LaChelsie Thomas. The quartet finished behind Radford and a spot in front of Liberty.

Coastal rallied during the second day the last two years on the strength of its depth in the sprint finals and the Chanticleers advanced 13 into those races on Friday, compared to seven qualifiers for Liberty.

As expected, Coastal led the way in the 400-meter preliminaries as Jessica Gelibert, Christal Green and Camille Hurley had the conference's top three times coming in and were the top three qualifiers for the final. Gelibert was first in 55.31, Hurley second in 56.14 and Green third in 56.71. Hurley's time was her best of the season.

Chanticleers had three of the four fastest preliminary times in the 60-meter hurdles, led by Gelibert, who was first in a season-best time of 8.45. Hurley was third in 8.63 and Christina Davis right behind in fourth with 8.65.

Coastal also advanced three into the 60-meter dash finals as Simpson and Naules each posted the sixth-fastest time of 7.74 and Symphony Thompson qualified eighth with a season-best 7.76.

Simpson also led the field in the 200-meter qualifying, clocking a time of 24.95, with Green in the fifth position with a time of 25.64. Two Chants will also run in the 800 final as Aynslee van Graan placed fourth in the preliminary in 2:16.16 and Imani Boatwright was sixth in 2:19.14.

In the 2013 meet, Coastal trailed by 14 points entering the final day and won the meet by 40. Last year, it was a nine-point deficit and the Chants ended up with a 55-point margin.

Friday's action begins at 10 a.m. with the weight throw, followed by the mile run, triple jump and high jump. The finals of the 60 hurdles and 60, 200, 400 and 800 meters will then be contested before the 5,000 meters and the 4x400 relay conclude the meet.