In true Morehouse College style, the Flying Maroon Tigers finished the 2004 season strong and proud in the NCAA Division II National Track and Field Championships, contested May 27-29, at Mount Sac, Calif.

With 27 points, Morehouse finished in a tie for ninth place in the national competition that included 58 Division II colleges. Morehouse finished well ahead of conference rival Albany State University, which finished in a tie for seventeenth place with 15 points. Abilene Christian, a perennial track and field powerhouse, won the 21-event competition with 75 points, followed closely by St. Augustine’s College with 74 points.

Morehouse, which finished second in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference track and field championships, collected the bulk of its points in field events, with outstanding performances from Keith Moffatt, Jason Cornelius and Cameron Dayne. The remaining points were earned by junior Javonie Small and the 4x400 sprint relay team.

Moffatt, who won the indoor national high-jumping championship, continued the winning ways he began back in the indoor track and field season. The freshman high-jumping sensation from Newport News, Va. finished in a three-way tie for first place with a leap of 7’- 2 ¼.” But because of a missed leap at a lower height, Moffatt was awarded second place and eight points.

Senior Jason Cornelius tied for fourth-place in the event, with a leap of 7’- 1.” The Athens, Ga. native who also plays on the Morehouse basketball team, was the national high jump champion in 2002. For the past year, Cornelius has been competing well, though sparingly, while nursing a nagging leg injury.

The NCAA Division II national high jump record of 7’-5 ¼” is still held by Morehouse alumnus Gregory Roberts who set the mark in 1997.

Dayne, a sophomore from Richmond, Va., collected five points for the Maroon and White with a fourth place finish in the triple-jump competition. Dayne’s leap of 50’- 5 1/2” was a full foot farther than his best effort in last year’s nationals that earned him a seventh place finish.

On the track, Morehouse was paced by track veteran Small, who competed in last year’s nationals. The triple-threat speedster from Houston collected five points each with fourth-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles (14.16) and the 400-meter hurdles (51.56).

Small also picked up a point for the Flying Maroon Tigers as the anchor of the 4 x 400-meter relay team that finished in eighth place. The other members of that team were senior James Hill, freshman Ross McMillan and sophomore Mark Washington. Their combined time was 3:23.92.

The Flying Maroon Tigers are trained and coached by Willie Hill and his assistants Troy Berry, Chris Doomes.