Track: WVU Shines in Holiday Classic
December 06, 2003 07:56 PM | General
December 6, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The West Virginia University women's track team opened the 2003-04 indoor season in dominating fashion by winning a total of nine events at the 2003 Holiday Classic on Saturday, Dec. 6, in the WVU Shell Building.
Six of West Virginia's finishes were good enough to be noted as BIG EAST qualifying times and twelve Mountaineers achieved personal bests on the day.
Sophomore sprinter Jessica Czaikowski had a break out afternoon winning both the 55m dash (7.23) and 55m women's hurdles (8.31). Junior Tara Struyk, a standout on the cross country circuit, breezed through the 3,000m with a winning time of 10:02.33.
Freshman Halima Bashir started her WVU career with a win in the 500m dash with a time of 1:20.75. Sophomore Susan Davis and junior Rachel Carden crossed the line in first (5:22.28) and second (5:22.32) respectively in the mile run. Junior Jennifer Davis took the 800m title (2:22.57) with WVU's Kenyetta Conway (2:23.45), Rhea Mann (2:25.20) and Pamela Richardson (2:25.22) rounding out the top four.
Sophomore Nancy Regalbuto and senior Mary Beth Held represented West Virginia well in the day's field events. Regalbuto achieved a mark of 1.63m in the women's high jump while Held cleared the bar at 3.20m to win the pole vault.
To close out Saturday's meet, the West Virginia 4x400m team consisting of Mann, Conway, Richardson and Czaikowski crossed the line in 4:01.29 to win the team relay title.
"I thought our girls came out and ran remarkably well for the first meet of the season," coach Jeff Huntoon said. "They really worked hard to bring the best out of themselves today. All of the personal bests and BIG EAST qualifiers we had today is a testament to how hard they have worked to prepare for the upcoming season."
The Mountaineers have nearly a month off before returning to the track to take part in the Black Squirrel Classic on Jan. 10, 2004, in Kent, Ohio.
