Chris Jones is in his second year with the Sam Houston Track & Field team. He joined the Bearkat staff as a graduate assistant after a very successful year at Lon Morris College and an outstanding career at Stephen F. Austin in the multi-events. Jones comes to the program to take over the high jump, javelin, assistant sprint coach and multi-event shot put and discus.
In the 2012-2013 season, Jones guided and assisted numerous Bearkats to becoming conference champions, all-conference performances, NCAA D-I West Preliminary Qualifiers, National Championships Qualifiers and All-Americans.
In the javelin, Jones produced two female point scorers (Elizabeth Lyssy, Shauni Prihoda) at the SLC Outdoor Championship meet. Jones was also in charge of the shot put and discus for the multi-event athletes.
Morgan Davis was named SHSU’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well as being named the Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year for the second straight year. In addition to her academic honors, she also took home the Southland Conference indoor pentathlon championship for the second consecutive year.
Matthew Johnson wrapped up a stellar multi-event career by taking both the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon conference titles. In addition to the conference titles, Johnson became an All-Conference performer in the 110m hurdles as well as scored valuable team points in the javelin, long jump, shot put, and discus. He finished his Bearkat career earning NCAA D1 All-American status in the decathlon with a school record performance of 7,697 points.
In addition to these great performers, Jones helped guide Allyson Pettit to an all-conference performance in the indoor pentathlon.
As a collegiate, Jones was an All-Southland Conference performer and NCAA qualifier in the Decathlon at SFA. In 2011, he finished 29th in the nation with a personal best score of 7,380 and was second at conference with a score of 7,076. In 2010, he finished second with 6,960 points in the Decathlon at the Conference Outdoor Championships and finished fourth with 5,129 points in the Heptathlon at the Conference Indoor Championships. Jones scored 5,211 points to finish third in the heptathlon, and earn All-Southland Conference honors at the SLC Indoor Championships in 2009. One year prior, he recorded 6,998 points to finish fourth in the decathlon at the conference meet and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Stephen F. Austin in 2011 and is currently working on a master’s degree in Education at Sam Houston State University.
Jones is a native of Hawkins, Texas.
