April 26, 2008

Results

Southern Conference Championships Revised Day Two Schedule

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina sits in second place on the men's side and third place on the women's after day one of the 2008 Southern Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, held at the Catamount Athletic Complex in Cullowhee.

On the women's side, Appalachian State leads the team rankings with 68 points after six events. Defending SoCon outdoor champion Georgia Southern is in second with 35 points, followed closely by the Western Carolina women, who finished day one with 31 points, in third. The ASU men are also in first, picking up 146 points on the day to stand 99 points ahead of the second-place Catamounts (47 points). So far, it has been a two-team race, as the next highest point total belongs to UNC Greensboro with 17 points.

The first WCU individual event win of the championships was turned in by junior Chris Gaillard, who took top honors in the men's long jump with a top distance of 7.28 meters, the top mark on the team this season.

Junior Tara Tounzen took home victory in the women's javelin when she exploded with a personal-best throw of 42.69 meters, which equals out to over 140 feet. She beat her prior top mark by over four meters, and won her first SoCon title in the event after finishing second last year.

The Cats recorded their first top five of the weekend in the men's hammer, when sophomore Cale McDaniel placed fifth with a final throw of 49.97 meters. He was followed in sixth place by teammates Chris Page, who recorded a distance of 49.08 meters, and Patrick Morris, who came in at 42.09 meters, good for seventh.

In the women's hammer, WCU took home two of the top four places, led by senior Michaela Hall, who landed the women's first podium finish with her toss of 45.76 meters, good for third place and All-SoCon honors. Right behind her was fellow senior Nicole Lopez, who came in fourth place with a throw of 45.15 meters.

WCU added another All-Southern Conference accolade in the men's pole vault, when junior Logan James tied for third place with a height of 4.49 meters. He was followed by another Western All-SoCon performance with sophomore Cody Lawson's third-place finish in the men's discus, throwing a season-best distance of 44.72 meters.

Western Carolina was all over the top of the leaderboard after the first day of the men's decathlon, with Catamounts holding all of the top three places. Sophomore Matt Evans won three of the five events held on Saturday to go into the final day in first place with 3,310 points. Evans was victorious in the long jump, shot put, and high jump, with teammate Sean Reardon winning the 100-meters and 400-meters for a clean Catamount sweep of the events. Reardon finished the day in second, after supplementing his two wins with a second, third, and seventh place finish. Sophomore David Gift rounded out the top three in third, finishing in the top five in all five events, with a high of second place in the long jump.

Nine Catamount athletes will be competing in the finals of the 400-meter dash, comprising over half of the total fields for the men and women. Junior Manteo Mitchell ran the top time for in the preliminary heats, with a mark of 48.42 seconds. In her first SoCon Championships, freshman Janet Carothers ran the fastest time of the women's prelims with a career-best 54.81 second race.

In the women's 100-meter dash preliminaries, freshman Felicia Paulding set a new school record with a time of 11.59 seconds, which also qualifies her for the NCAA East Regional. Her record-breaking mark was the top time of the preliminaries, and the fastest time ran in the Southern Conference this season. She joins three of her women's teammates and four men in the finals of the event.

Senior Kerrie Savery kicked off her final SoCon Championships by winning her heat in the women's 800-meter run, qualifying for the finals, along with teammate Megan Isaacs, who posted the top time in the preliminaries with a mark of 2:13.34, just ahead of Savery's 2:13.86.

With her third regional qualifying time of the year in the 200-meter dash, Ramseur took the top spot in the preliminaries with a time of 23.76 seconds. A total of five Catamounts will be in the eight-person finals tomorrow, with Paulding, Fronberger, Tangelia Johnson, and Carothers joining Ramseur in the field. The men matched the women's performances with five finals qualifiers in the 200-meters, led by preliminary heat winner Zeb Johnson, who set a new WCU school record with his time of 20.88 seconds, as well as Mitchell, Young, Funderburke, and Oros.

Due to the threat of severe weather, all start times for Sunday have been moved up 90 minutes earlier throughout the day. Competition will begin at 8:00 p.m. with the multi events, and culminate with the finals of the 4x400-meter relays at 4:00 p.m., followed by the crowning of the team champions and announcements of the individual awards immediately after.

Any additional information about weather-related changes will be posted at CatamountSports.com. Fans can get live results throughout the day by logging onto www.cfpitiming.com and clicking on the SoCon live stats page.

Men's Rankings - 6 Events Scored:
1. Appalachian State - 146 pts
2. Western Carolina - 47 pts
3. UNC Greensboro - 17 pts
4. Davidson - 9 pts
T-5. The Citadel - 5 pts
T-5. Furman - 5 pts
7. Chattanooga - 4 pts

Women's Rankings - 6 Events Scored:
1. Appalachian State - 68 pts
2. Georgia Southern - 35 pts
3. Western Carolina - 31 pts
4. Chattanooga - 30 pts
5. Davidson - 21 pts
6. Elon - 16 pts
7. The Citadel - 14 pts
8. Furman - 11 pts
9. Col. Of Charleston - 8 pts