April 27, 2008

Full Results

WCU Individual Results and All-Southern Conference Selections

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina Women's Track & Field team battled back from a double-digit first-day deficit on the second day of competition at the 2008 Southern Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships to take home the overall championship. The men's team, who had pulled to within one point of the lead, finished the meet in second place overall.

The team title is the first for the WCU women since they won three-straight championships from 1999-01, and gives them five wins since 1997. The Catamounts have now finished in the top five overall in each of the 22 track & field championships that the SoCon has sponsored for the women.

The men, who were over 100 points down at one point, battled back to within one point of the lead, finishing the weekend in second place behind overall men's champion Appalachian State, who totaled 315 points to WCU's 288. It was truly a two-team race on the men's side, with the third place squad from The Citadel sitting 221 points back with 67 points total.

WCU not only took the women's overall team championship, but garnered three of the individual awards, with Felicia Paulding winning Freshman of the Year, and senior Raquel Ramseur being named the Most Valuable Track Performer. Catamount Head Coach Danny Williamson was named SoCon Coach of the Year for the second-straight year, and completing the season sweep, having won the award at the 2008 Indoor Championships.

Junior Manteo Mitchell repeated his Most Valuable Track Performer win from the indoor season, picking up the award for the outdoor championships as well. Mitchell recorded four wins during the weekend, picking up victories in the 400-meters, the 200-meters, 4x400-meter relay, and the 4x100-meter relay. He also came in second place in the 100-meter dash for a total of five top-two performances.

WCU combined for 17 wins over the two days, with the men contributing eight, and the women accounting for nine, on their way to the team title. A total of 29 student-athletes garnered All-Southern Conference honors in 28 different events.

Sophomore David Gift used a victory in the last event of the decathlon to pull himself into the top spot, winning the overall title with a total of 6,034 points. Gift finished in the top five in all ten events over the two days to edge teammate Matt Evans, who won four of the events to accumulate 5,958 points.

The Western Carolina 4x100-meter relay teams completed a clean sweep of the event, taking home victory in both races. The women's team ran away with the win, breaking the Southern Conference record with a time of 45.68 seconds, almost a full two seconds ahead of the second-place team. The men were victorious as well, finishing with a time of 40.26, which was good enough for an NCAA East Regional spot.

In her final SoCon Championship race, senior Kerrie Savery went out on top, never trailing on her way to a victory in the 800-meter run, to go along with her win in the 1,500-meters, finishing in a team-best time of 4:37.80. Joining her on the podium in the 1,500 was junior Megan Isaacs, who finished in third place with a time of 4:42.08.

It was an all-Western podium in both the 400-meter dashes, with Catamounts picking up the top four places in the men and the top three in the women. Mitchell was the men's winner, tripping the tape in a time of 48.13 seconds, followed by Thomas Funderburke, Zeb Johnson, and John Oros. Ramseur won the women's 400-meters, with a mark of 55.14 seconds. Freshmen Janet Carothers and Shalyn McMichael completed the Catamount sweep.

Evans continued his successful day with a win in the men's high jump event. He cleared a top height of 1.96 meters to take home the victory, just above teammate and long jump winner Chris Gaillard's runner-up mark of 1.91 meters. He then followed that up with a runner-up performance in the javelin, to total four top-two finishes on the day.

WCU made the most of having over half of the total runners in the finals of the men's 100-meter dash, finishing 1-2-3 in the event. Dominique Young was the victor with a regional-qualifying time of 10.50 seconds, with Mitchell and Zeb Johnson right behind him in second and third, respectively.

Paulding, who set a school record in the women's 100-meters on Saturday, followed it up with a win in the finals with a time of 11.86 seconds. She finished a mere .01 seconds ahead of teammate Tangelia Johnson, who was the runner-up with a mark of 11.87.

Western finished their dominance of the sprint events by taking all five of the top spots in the women's 200-meter dash, led by Ramseur's winning time of 23.94 seconds. The rest of the Catamount runners in the top five were, in order, Paulding, Fronberger, Carothers, and Johnson. The men's 200-meters was more of the same, with WCU in all of the top four spots. Mitchell picked up his third win of the day, with a regional qualifying mark of 21.10 seconds. Second through fourth for the Cats was Zeb Johnson, Young, and Funderburke.

WCU's lone finalist in the women's 100-meter hurdles, junior Rashanda Simmons, made the most of her chance by winning the event, nudging out the second-place finisher in a time of 14.45 seconds for the victory.

Senior David Bowles closed out his SoCon career with a win in the men's javelin, shaking off the persistent rain showers to record a distance of 56.90 meters and take the top spot in the event.

In the final event of the day, the WCU women's 4x400-meter relay team set out to not only win the event, but to put some distance between them and the second-place Mountaineers in the overall standings. The Cats did just that, winning then event with a wire-to-wire victory time of 3:44.09, to give them their final overall winning margin of 27 points.

Once again, the men followed the women's example and took home the win in the 4x400, pulling ahead in the second leg and never looking back, sprinting out to the victory in a time of 3:20.00.

WCU placed two on the All-SoCon team in the shot put, and also picked up fifth place. Freshman Patrick Morris came in second in the event with a career-best toss of 15.15 meters, with senior Chris Page in third with a distance of 14.87 meters. Those two were joined by sophomore Cale McDaniel who picked up a fifth place finish with his throw of 14.63 meters. In the women's shot put, senior Nicole Lopez recorded her first All-SoCon performance of the weekend with a runner-up finish, tossing a team-best distance of 41.99 meters.

Senior Aaron Grant helped pull the Catamounts closer to the top overall team spot with his second-place finish in the men's 800-meters, finishing with a time of 1:54.83.

The WCU women, after trailing Appalachian State all weekend, took their first lead of the day when sophomore Tierra Johnson finished in second place in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing with a season-best time of 1:03.37. after her race, the Catamounts completed their comeback from 35 points down at the beginning of the day, taking a 3-point lead that they would never relinquish.

The two teams will not look to qualify more athletes for the NCAA East Regionals, and improve the existing marks already achieved. After a week-long break, the Cats will head down to Clemson, S.C. for the Orange/Purple Classic on Saturday, May 10.