January 14, 2006 - Black Wins at North Carolina Opener
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Elon University's Alana Black emerged as the first of 16 runners to cross the finish line in the one-mile run at the University of North Carolina Opener women's indoor track meet Saturday, clocking in at a program-record time of 5:11.88.
Black improved upon her own school milestone performance of 5:15.54, set on Feb. 7, 2004. She edged out runner-up Tara Dressler (5:12.22) of Campbell University.
Teammate Alissa Wilke shattered the Elon record for the 3000-meter run, good enough for a 10th-place finish in the 24-runner field. Wilke turned in a time of 11:05.14, surpassing Black's previous top mark of 11:33.49, set on Jan. 24, 2004.
Phoenix sprinter Dominique Price finished ninth of 32 athletes in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles, clocking in at 8.97 seconds. In the finals, she ended up seventh with a time of 9.05 seconds. Price narrowly missed catching up to her own school record time of 8.95 seconds, set on Feb. 26, 2005.
Elon's Chavanne Hubbard placed third out of 32 runners in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:25.97. Other top-10 Phoenix performances were achieved by Jessica Clendenning in the pole vault (8th of 13/3.20 meters), Julia Hicks in the long jump (9th of 27/4.89 meters) and Amy Sulser in the one-mile run (9th of 16/5:42.83).
January 14, 2006 - Wildcat Track Season Takes Off at North Carolina Opener
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? The Davidson men and women tracksters began their indoor season Saturday at the North Carolina Opener in Chapel Hill, where sophomore Megal Atias turned in the Wildcats’ highest individual performance by taking third in the mile with a time of 5:18.26.
Other top performers on the day included senior co-captain Hilary Leister, who raced to sixth in the 800 meters with a mark of 2:27.87, followed by sophomore Colleen McKown in seventh at 2:28.92. Freshmen Caroline Sanker and Emily King rounded up fifth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively, in the 3000 meters to further demonstrate the depth of this year’s squad.
For the men, sophomore Brad Troxell paced the ’Cats, crossing the finish line fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:57.72, not far off the school record of 1:56.32. The top four finishers in the neck-and-neck race were within just .72 of each other. Senior co-captain Jonathan Baker also turned in a top performance for Davidson with a sixth-place finish in the 3000 meters, coming in at 8:47.68.
Highlighting the field events for the Wildcats, sophomore Ryan Hubbard’s long jump of 21-11.5 was good for ninth, and freshman Will Funderburg took ninth in the shot put with a throw of 40-4.75.
Davidson’s men and women will take next weekend off from competition before returning to Chapel Hill for the Carolina Fast times on January 27-28.
January 15, 2006 ? Citadel Indoor Track and Field Competes in First Meet of the New Year
Chapel Hill, NC - The Citadel's indoor track and field team began the new year on Saturday as they competed at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Opener. The Bulldogs posted a strong showing as many Cadets set Citadel and personal best records.
For the women's team, junior Stephanie McNeill and sophomore Jodi Whittle had a record setting day. McNeill added more than foot to her 20 pound weight record (46-8) to earn fourth place with a toss of 47-11-25. McNeill also finished in the number four spot in the shot put with a 38-10-5 toss.
Whittle smashed the 60 meter mark of 8.02 set in 2000 by Latrice Sales with a time of 7.89 and again lowered the record in the finals with a 7.86 finish to take tenth. She followed that with a fifth place finish in the 200 meters in a record time of 26.08, breaking the previous mark of 26.18 set by Monesha Booker in 2004.
Tasha Sanders just missed her own record (9.71) in the 60 meter hurdles running 9.75 and finishing 17th. Freshman Monique Edwards also scored points with a seventh place finish in the 20lb. weight with a toss of 41-2.25, moving to number three all-time in that event.
The men also had a record setting day as Zach DiBois had a third place finish in the 35 pound weight throw with a toss of 50-7.25, setting a personal record. DiBois bettered his number two all-time performance in school history by about an inch and just missed Stanley Victrum's school record of 52-2 by 18 inches.
Senior Rick Austin also placed seventh in the weight with a throw of 37-4.5. In the shot put, junior Alex Croskey and Austin placed sixth and seventh, respectively, with Croskey tossing the shot 41-9.75.
Charleston native, junior Quintin Wright, placed sixth in the 200 meters in a time of 22.98. Junior Chip Kutz ran a personal best 4:39.41 to earn seventh place in the mile. Senior Marcus Butler took sixth in the 800 meter run in a time of 1:59.86. The distance medley relay team of Chip Kutz, Jonathan Vallejo, Marcus Butler and Robert Issac also had a sixth place finish for the Bulldogs.
Up next, The Citadel will head to Johnson City, TN to compete in the Niswonger Invitational hosted by East Tennessee State University this Friday and Saturday, January 20-21.