Track: Czaikowski Qualifies for NCAAs
January 21, 2006 08:16 PM | General
January 21, 2006
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The West Virginia University indoor track team had some of the top individual performances at the Penn State Women’s Open in State College, Pa., Saturday, Jan. 21.
Junior Jessica Czaikowski took second in the 55-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 7.73. The Tottenham, Ontario, native’s mark is an NCAA provisional qualifying time and also is the third best time in school history behind Pat Itanyi (7.67) and Stacian Brown (7.68).
“For Jessica to come here and run her best time ever in the 55-meter hurdles, that’s great,” head coach Jeff Huntoon said. “I’m really impressed with her because she had an illness last week that held her out of competition.”
Junior Abbie Stechschulte also ran a personal best time of 8.16 in the 55-meter hurdle prelims and an 8.26 in the 55-meter hurdle finals to tie for fourth.
Senior Susan Davis and freshman Raeleen Hunter ran to the top two spots in the 1,000-meter run. Davis (2:54.11) came from behind to edge Hunter by two-tenths of a second just before the finish line. Both times were ECAC and BIG EAST qualifying times.
Senior Jen Hall tied for first in the pole vault with a height of 3.60m. The Dayton, Ohio, native’s mark makes her a BIG EAST and ECAC qualifier. Junior Alexis Noel triple jumped 11.47 meters to qualify for the BIG EAST championships despite still being inexperienced in the event. Senior Nancy Regalbuto won the high jump for the second week in a row with a height of 1.70 meters.
Other top Mountaineer performances included freshman Jamillah Nock placing fourth in the 55-meter dash (7.40), while Junique Morris qualified for BIG EAST and ECAC’s by placing fourth in the 200-meter dash (25.00).
“We had nine BIG EAST and eight ECAC qualifying times today,” Huntoon said. “Overall, we had a good showing, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
The WVU indoor track team returns to State College, Pa., Friday and Saturday for the Penn State National Open.
