Track: Big East Championships Results
May 04, 2003 05:39 PM | General
May 4, 2003
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| Metcalfe |
STORRS, Conn. - The West Virginia University track teams completed a long and fruitful weekend of competition at the BIG EAST championships, hosted by Connecticut, at the George J. Sherman Family-Sports Complex, with the men finishing sixth with 70 points and the women finishing seventh with 45 points.
Miami captured the women's competition with 166 points while Notre Dame won for the men with 139 points. It is Miami's third consecutive team championship and fifth title in the six years they have been BIG EAST affiliated. It is Notre Dame's second crown in four years.
"Overall, I am very pround of both teams," said head coach Jeff Huntoon. "We had alot of qualifiers for the NCAA regional meet, as well as ECAC and IC4A."
The Mountaineers had two individual BIG EAST champions in Brandon Howard and Megan Metcalfe.
Howard, a junior from Akron, Ohio, won the long jump at 7.56m, the second best distance in WVU history.
Metcalfe, a junior from Edmonton, Alberta, won the 10,000m run in 35:08.89, the third best time in Mountaineer history. This marks her third BIG EAST individual track title.
In the women's team competition, the distance runners followed Metcalfe's lead and had a very successful weekend, scoring a bulk of the team's points.
Sophomore Jennifer Kemp placed second in the 800m run in 2:08.02, which is a new WVU school record. It also qualifies her for the NCAA regional meet.
Sophomore Devon Plesuk placed third in the 10,000m run in 36:17.52, putting her in fifth in WVU's record books.
Sophomore Tara Struyk took third in the 5,000m run in 16:54.89.
The women's 4x800m relay, consisting of Metcalfe, Merissa Sexsmith, Jennifer Davis, and Kemp came in third in 8:53.49.
Other individual point-scorers for the women were:
Jennifer Davis, sixth place, 3,000m steeplechase, 11:04.80
Nancy Regalbuto, seventh place, heptathlon, 4,262 points
Pam Richardson, eighth place, 400m hurdles, 1:02.85
Also, the women's 4x400m relay, consisting of Richardson, Ciara Chic, Junique Morris and Kenyetta Conway, finished sixth in 3:44.94, which was good enough for NCAA regional qualification.
"I am very pleased with the girls, they did very well, considering that both seniors Christine Brown and Ailene Smith did not attend the meet," said Huntoon. "That really affected their relays and in the overall team competition."
The men's team came out of their last BIG EAST championship meet with numerous NCAA regional and IC4A qualifying performances.
Veterans William White and Dwayne Grant-Higgins joined Howard in leading the men. Both White and Grant-Higgins placed in two events apiece.
Grant-Higgins, a sophmore, took second place in the 400m hurdles in 52.49 seconds, which qualifies him for NCAA regionals. He also took fourth place in the 110m hurdles in 14.54 seconds.
White, a senior, placed third in the 100m dash in 10.96 seconds and seventh in the 200m dash in 21.66 seconds.
Senior Jason Mandato placed second in the pole vault at 4.90m.
Freshman Zach Sabatino took second in the 3,000m steeplechase in 8:56.66, followed by fellow freshman Tyler DeVault, who took third in 9:03.72. Sabatino's time is fifth all-time at WVU and both Sabatino and DeVault ran well enough to qualifiy for NCAA regionals in the event.
Other top-finishers for the men's team included:
Justin Willyoung, fourth place, high jump, 2.01m
Damian Baines, fifth place, triple jump, 15.05m
Adam Golembeski, sixth place, decathlon, 6,374 points
Marc Kellman, sixth place, triple jump, 14.70m
Robbie Watson, sixth place, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:13.47
"The guys came out and gave their best effort," said Huntoon. "If not for a false start in the 4x100m relay, a clearance in the pole vault or a few more points from our young jumpers, they would've been third. They came up a little short, only by five points."
Complete results are available at www.bigeast.org.
The Mountaineers return to action on Saturday, May 10, at the James Madison Invitational in Harrisonburg, Va.
