A pair of Bahamians were honored by the Big Ten Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) this week, as they were named athletes of the week.
Purdue track and field stars Kinard Rolle and Devynne Charlton were recognized as conference's athletes of the week for their early season performances at last week's Gene Edmonds Open.
Rolle was named as the conference's men's co-track athlete of the week, sharing the honor with his Purdue teammate Anaquan Peterson, and Charlton earned the title as Big Ten's Female Athlete of the Week.
It marked the first time that a single school collected three Big Ten Track and Field Athlete of the Week honors in a single week since December 15, 2014.
After being sidelined for the majority of last season, including the Olympic Games, with a back injury, Charlton looks to bounce back this season. She is off to a good start so far.
Last week at the Gene Edmonds Open on the school grounds in West Lafayette, Indiana, Charlton won both the 60 meters (m) dash and the 60m hurdles. At the meet, she set a new school record in the 60m, winning in 7.30 seconds. Shortly afterwards, she won the hurdles in 8.14 seconds, which is the second best time posted in the United States this year.
Charlton opened the indoor season on a high note at the Hoosier Open in Bloomington, Indiana. At the meet, she won the women's 60m hurdles in 8.09 seconds, shattering the meet record of 8.24 that was set by Kayla Parker of the University of Kentucky in 2013. She also finished seventh in the women's 300m in 39.37 seconds.
As for Rolle, the junior sprinter set the nation's top mark in the men's 400m at the Gene Edmonds Open, with his time of 47.89 seconds. Rolle was also a part of the men's 1,600m relay team that won gold.
Like Charlton, he too kicked his season off with a win at the Hoosier Open. Rolle won the men's 500m for Purdue in 1:03.18, and also ran the third leg for Purdue's 4x400 men's relay team that won the race in 3:14.55. The other members of the team were Obokhare Ikpefan, Shawndail McLauren and Justin Veteto.
The Purdue Boilermakers track and field team will be in action again on Saturday when they take on Indiana University in a dual meet.

The Michigan State Spartans season has been filled with ups and downs, from injuries to star players, to on-court struggles, but through it all, Bahamian Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. has done his part to ensure the Spartans play well, as they try to find their footing with the 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Division I Basketball Tournament just around the corner.
In the Spartans' last game, a 72-63 loss to Penn State, Nairn's leadership skills were on full display.
He commanded his teammates as he set up plays from the top of the key, and made pivotal defensive stops when the team needed it most. One moment, in particular, that stood out was when Nairn got in the face of freshman superstar Miles Bridges, for watching a loose ball bounce away from him to a player from Penn State, rather than diving for it.
Spartans' Head Coach Tom Izzo said that although Bridges is still trying to find his comfort zone on the floor after missing seven games with an ankle injury, it was the kind of leadership needed to turn their season around. Their struggles on the court has been due mainly to inconsistent line-ups.
Michigan State was ranked as the ninth best team in the nation in the USA Today Preseason poll back in October, but the Spartans haven't lived up to those expectations, sitting with an 11-6 win/loss record on the season.
"I was so excited for Tum that he went over and told him what he should have done," Izzo said. "I thought that Tum needed to take a step to hold people accountable to how we need to play to win. He did that and our team will be a better team because of that if he can do that on a regular basis. There's enough respect for him."
This season has been the best of Nairn's career in terms of his offense. He matched a career-high with 13 points against Penn State, and has also made eight three-pointers this season after making just six in his career entering the season. Although his scoring is a plus, Nairn said he would have the same demeanor if his shots weren't falling, because it's just who he is.
"To be a leader, for me, it doesn't matter if I'm playing good offensively," Nairn said. "That is just who I am naturally. That's what I was born to do, so for me it's just making sure that I don't make mistakes messing up defensive assignments, making sure I can get on guys because I'm doing the right things. It's hard to get on somebody if you're not doing the right things, so my offense and playing well doesn't have anything to do with feeling comfortable with the team."
The Spartans will need Nairn to continue to be aggressive as they begin a tough portion of their season. Over the next two weeks, they have games scheduled against Michigan, No. 17 Purdue, Ohio State and Nebraska. They'll have to win the majority of those games to even be considered for the NCAA Tournament.
Nairn is currently averaging 4.4 points, 3.9 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game, all career highs.

GREAT EXUMA, The Bahamas -- Nicholas Thompson battled through 32 holes to take the clubhouse lead by one over Dan McCarthy at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay when play was suspended late Monday evening. Thompson started the day at 1-over-par and finished his first round at 3-over before managing to tie the best round of the tournament with a second-round 67 that included seven birdies and two bogeys.
"I played nicely in the first round but I just didn't quite get the putts going. I got off to a nice hot start on the back nine in the second round though," Thompson said. "I played the back nine back-to-back times and that's dicey to begin with, but I got off to a good start."
Beginning on No. 10, the second most difficult hole on the course, Thompson curled in a long birdie to open the second round and then nearly holed his approach into the par-3 11th for back-to-back birdies. A three-putt bogey at the par-4 12th slowed him down briefly, but he bounced back with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, and then chipped in for par at the 18th to turn in a 3-under 33.
"After going for it in two on 18, I put myself in a bad spot and then put myself in a worse spot," Thompson said. "Then I got it up right next to the green, and I hit a beautiful chip that rolled right in and it kept the momentum going because then I turned and birdied No. 1."
Three birdies and a bogey followed on the front nine, allowing Thompson, who has one Web.com Tour win to his credit (2007 HSBC New Zealand PGA), to take the clubhouse lead by one with the entire afternoon wave still on the golf course when the horn blew.
"I played a lot of proper shots," Thompson said. "Whether if I played the proper shot for me that went with the wind and sent it out in the bushes and let it come back, or if I hit one in the green and held it against the wind, I made a lot of good club decisions today."
After winning four times on the Mackenzie Tour - PGA (Professional Golfers' Association) TOUR Canada a year ago, McCarthy is in a prime position to potentially bring those winning ways up to the Web.com Tour. The 2016 Mackenzie Tour Order of Merit winner is just one back of Thompson after rounds of 72-71 to open. The 32-year-old is from upstate New York but resides in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, these days and said the seaside gusts blowing through Exuma were all too familiar.
"It's very, very windy [in West Palm Beach]," McCarthy said. "I've got a lot of experience in wind and pretty well practiced in keeping the ball down and out of the wind, so I've just been doing a very good job of keeping it in front of me and keeping it under control."
Another advantage McCarthy said was just a month ago he played on the Mackenzie Tour's team at the Aruba Cup. Although his team wasn't victorious, the late season tune-up had him ready to handle the 35 miles per hour gusts that blew out of the northeast throughout his round Friday.
"The Aruba Cup just a couple weeks ago was extremely windy," McCarthy said. "(It was) very similar miles per hour and stuff like that but the landing areas were a bit more generous down there so that wasn't quite as stressful down there, but it was extremely windy, so I've seen a lot of wind lately."
After opening with a 7-over 79, Kent Bulle tied Thompson for the round of the tournament with a second-round 67 to get into a share of third after the most impressive four-hole stretch of the tournament, playing the last four holes in 6-under-par. The Kentucky native entered the par-5 15th at 8-over for the tournament, just a couple shots inside the cut line, but reeled off an eagle at the 15th, a birdie at the par-4 16th, another birdie at the par-4 17th and then another eagle at the par-5 18th.
Two-time PGA TOUR winner D.J. Trahan is tied with Bulle in third after rounds of 78-68. The second round of the unprecedented Sunday-Wednesday format was scheduled to resume at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the third round set to tee off between 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
The event is being held at the Sandals Emerald Bay Golf Course at Sandals Emerald Bay in Great Exuma. The total purse of the tournament is $600,000, with $108,000 going to the champion.

Senior guard Michael Carey came up big with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field in Wagner College's 75-64 win over Sacred Heart University on Saturday.
The win was a good bounce-back win for the Wagner Seahawks (6-8 win/loss record), as they suffered back-to-back one-point losses in their previous two games.
All of Carey's points came in the second half, as he pushed to keep Wagner in front, after Sacred Heart cut a double-digit lead to two or three on multiple occasions. Junior guard Corey Henson led the way for Wagner with 24 points.
"It's huge when those two guys play the way they did today," Seahawks' Head Coach Bashir Mason said. "It's just so much easier to manage the rest of the players and the whole game when you know what you're getting from Corey and Michael."
The Seahawks held a 35-31 lead at the half, and went on a 7-0 scoring run coming out of the break. With Wagner up 47-35, the Pioneers began their comeback, scoring 10 points in a row before Carey took over. Carey had an elbow jumper that put the Seahawks ahead 49-45. He followed that up with two free throws and a hard baseline drive for an easy lay-up.
In the second half, Carey shot 7-for-10 from the floor and was 7-for-7 from the free throw line. He also pulled down four rebounds and dished out an assist.
"You have to give him credit," Sacred Heart Coach Anthony Latina said of Carey. "He made tough shots, shots with a hand in his face, shots that honestly we'll live with him taking."
Henson handed out seven assists in the game, with several of them to Carey for scores. The 6-foot-3 guard said there's nothing like playing on the floor when Carey has it going.
"Mike's a veteran guy who has been around the game, and he's someone you can count on," said Henson. "He takes the pressure off me, and keeps other teams from focusing so much on me."
Carey also had 21 points on Thursday in Wagner's 70-69 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson University. He shot 7-for-16 in that game and pulled down a whopping 22 rebounds.
The 6-foot-5 San Jacinto Junior College transfer is currently averaging 11.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the Seahawks.
The Seahawks are off until Thursday when they play Bryant University (4-12, 1-3) on the road.