Two Saluki athletes have achieved international success with their track and field skills.

Sophomores Josh Freeman and Brandon Shemonia competed Aug. 25 in the Pan-American Junior Athletics Championships in Colombia, and both came away with something to brag about.

Even though pouring rain made it difficult for Freeman to throw, he said it was not that big of a deal — Freeman ended up bringing home a gold medal.

“I do not think it was that big of a game changer,” he said. “You still have four more throws outside of those two (during the rain). It came down to who took advantage of their four throws, and I happened to have the longest of those four.”

His best throw was 20.2 meters, which ended up being more than half a meter farther than the next best thrower.

Throwing Coach John Smith said he was happy to have multiple people make it on international teams this year. Freeman and Shemonia are still young, and it is usually the younger athletes that make it to big tournaments who go on to do great things, he said.

“It is always good when you have people make international teams and they medal,” Smith said.

Shemonia finished seventh in the 10K run at the games this year. He finished with a time of 32:22.75, slightly slower than his qualifying time of 30:37.36. Shemonia strained his calf about four miles into his race after a great start, Freeman said.

“(Shemonia) was looking really good,” he said. “I thought he was going to do really well, he was seeded highly, he was pumped up about it, he was ready to go, and his calf just could not hold up for him.”

Freeman said his training and hard work over the summer is starting to pay off — this is his biggest accomplishment so far.

Even though the gold medal means a lot to him, he wants to keep moving forward; he has goals to win the MVC in both indoor and outdoor shot put, as well as be a first team All-American in both indoor and outdoor shot put.

Freeman qualified for the Pan-Am games with a second-place finish at the USA Track and Field junior championships in shot put. Shemonia qualified for the Pan-Am games with a fifth-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference championships in the 10K run.

Head coach Connie Price-Smith and John Smith said they have high expectations for the season. John Smith wants to have the number one ranked throwing team in the country, to win at least seven of ten titles, and to have three or four All- Americans. He also said that Freeman is going to have to be a leader this year.

“I expect for (Freeman) to come in this year and probably make nationals as a sophomore and just continue to get better and better,” Price- Smith said.

The track team has their first meet Dec. 7 in Carbondale.