Voorhees men finish fifth nationally, Burris wins NAIA triple jump title

Voorhees University came home from Asheville with something that can move a small college far beyond one track meet: a national champion, eight All-Americans and a fifth-place finish in the NAIA outdoor team standings against 113 schools. The Tigers scored 44 points at the May 20-22 championships at UNC Asheville’s Karl Straus Track, missing fourth place by just 0.2 points and giving Denmark and Bamberg County a national sports result with real value for recruiting, enrollment interest and school pride.

Sophomore Jayden Burris delivered the defining performance. After fouling on his first two preliminary attempts in the triple jump, Burris kept his title hopes alive with a 16.22-meter mark to qualify for the finals, then won the national championship with a 16.32-meter leap. The jump broke Voorhees’ school record and set a new NAIA championship record that had stood for 45 years. Burris, a Rock Hill native who competed at Northwestern High School, had already been named NAIA Men’s National Athlete of the Week on March 30.

Voorhees’ finish was not built on one star alone. Jaylen Burris placed second in the long jump at 7.68 meters and third in the triple jump at 15.39 meters, while Michael Tatnall finished fourth in the triple jump at 15.16 meters. Deandre Jones took fourth in the high jump, Zaireon Skinner finished third in the 200 meters, and Skinner joined Keyawn Spencer, Stephan Mitchell and Ayden Chambers on the 4x100-meter relay that placed fourth. The program said its athletes earned eight All-American honors in all, a depth of performance that helped separate this meet from a routine strong showing.

The result also fits a broader run of success under head coach Jeffery B. Hughes, who is in his sixth year leading Voorhees cross country and track and field. The men’s indoor team also finished fifth nationally earlier this year at the NAIA Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida, out of 122 teams. Add in the 2025 inaugural HBCU Division II Indoor National Championship and the 2025 inaugural HBCUAC Men’s Outdoor Championship, and Voorhees now has a track record that can help the university sell itself as a rising program with national reach. For a campus founded in 1897 by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright and rooted in Denmark, that kind of consistency can resonate well beyond the track.