Women's Track: Struyk Places 2nd in 5000
February 21, 2004 09:16 PM | General
February 21, 2004
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| Struyk |
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Junior Tara Struyk placed second in the 5,000 meters with an NCAA provisional time of 16:29.83 to lead West Virginia to an eighth place finish after the first day of competition at the BIG EAST indoor championships.
Struyk's second place finish was good enough to garner eight team points. As a team, the Mountaineers are currently in eighth place with 15 total points.
West Virginia placed two athletes in the top six of the indoor pentathlon. Freshman Abbie Stechschulte finished with 3,426 total points en route to a fifth place finish. The Columbus Grove, Ohio, native's best finish of the day came in the shot put where she placed third with a toss of 11.29 meters.
Sophomore Nancy Regalbuto finished with 3,387 points to finish one place behind Stechschulte at the sixth spot. The Hedgesville, W.Va., native's effort included a second place finish in the high jump where she finished with a mark of 1.70 meters.
Stechschulte's fifth place finish garnered four team points for the Mountaineers while Regaulbuto's finish at sixth place gave West Virginia three points.
"We haven't had anybody score in the pentathlon in some time," head coach Jeff Huntoon says. "I'm pretty excited to see that those girls were able to come up here and score for us today."
In other action, freshman Jessica Czaikowski placed 11th in the 60 meter dash prelims with a time of 7.72. Czaikowski's finish was just one tenth of a second off from qualifying for the ECAC Championships. The Tottenham, Ontario, native did qualify for Sunday's 60 meter hurdles finals after finishing eighth in the preliminary round with an ECAC qualifying time of 8.72.
In the 1,000 meter prelims, sophomore Junique Morris crossed the line in 11th (25.41) while Czaikowski finished 13th (25.59). Freshman Halimah Bashir crossed the line in 10th for a time of 58.07 in the 400 meter prelims.
Junior Pam Richardson qualified for the finals of the 500 meter dash after placing fourth in the prelims with an ECAC qualifying time of 1:15.55. Junior Jennifer Kemp advanced to Sunday's finals in the 800 meters after placing sixth in the prelims with a time of 2:14.55.
Junior Jennifer Davis failed to qualify for the finals in the 1,000 meters but managed to finish 10th in the prelims with an ECAC qualifying time of 2:56.62. Aside from Struyk's first place finish, WVU junior Devon Plesuk placed 15th in the 5,000 meters with a time of 18:07.91.
In the day's field events, senior Mary Beth Held finished 11th in the finals of the pole vault with a mark of 3.35 meters. Sophomore Michelle McGinnis also fared well with a 10th place finish in the weight throw finals.
"I was pleased with our results today," Huntoon says. "We feel we have a great opportunity to place well in tomorrow's events so we are excited about our position right now."
The second and final day of events is expected to begin at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.
