Women's Track: Struyk Breaks School Record
March 06, 2004 11:30 PM | General
March 6, 2004
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| Struyk |
BOSTON, MASS. – The West Virginia University women’s track team is in fifth place following the first day of competition at the ECAC indoor championships in Boston, Mass.
Overall, the Mountaineers came out of day one with one event champion, a national qualifier and five athletes who advanced to Sunday’s finals.
Junior Tara Struyk broke the school record in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:22.44 en route to the ECAC event championship. The time qualified the Edmonton, Alberta, native for next weekend’s NCAA championships in the event.
Freshman Jessica Czaikowski had a breakout day qualifying for both the 60 meter dash and 60 meter hurdles finals. The Tottenham, Ontario, native finished with a time of 7.66 in the 60 meter dash prelims. In the 60 meter hurdles, she crossed the line in 8.55 during the preliminary rounds and 8.60 in the semifinals to advance to Sunday’s finals.
Junior Jennifer Davis and senior Megan Metcalfe qualified for the 1,000 meter finals after finishing first and second respectively in heat one of the preliminaries.
Junior Pam Richardson qualified for the 500 meter finals after finishing first in heat three with a time of 73.93. Fellow junior Jennifer Kemp will compete in Sunday’s 800 meter finals after crossing the line in 2:13.21 on Saturday.
Freshman Abbie Stechschulte took full advantage of her first appearance in the ECAC indoor championships after finishing fifth in the pentathlon with a score of 3,464.
West Virginia’s other competitors in the championships included sophomore Junique Morris who ran the 200 meters in 24.84, freshman Halimah Bashir who crossed the line in 56.47 in the 400 meters and the Mountaineer’s 4x400 meter squad who recorded a time of 3:50.34.
“We are really excited about the performances our girls turned in today,” coach Jeff Huntoon said. “We feel great about our team position right now because we have several more competitors still alive in Sunday’s finals which gives us a great opportunity to move up in the standings.”
Sunday’s competition is set to get underway at approximately 1 p.m. with the awards ceremony slated for 4 p.m.
