Troy University Athletics
SBC Championship Update: Day 3
5/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
LAFAYETTE, La. -- The Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship is underway and troytrojans.com will be providing updates as much as possible throughout the day. Check back often for the latest information and at the end of the day for a complete recap.
7:30 p.m. -- Tawanna Meadows has finished second in the 100 meter dash. She ran a time of 11.71 seconds, her second-fastest of the year behind her school-record effort of 11.63 last night.
6:45 p.m. -- Monique Johnson has booked a return trip to the NCAA MidEast Regional with her performance in the 100 meter hurdles. She set new Sun Belt Conference Championship and school records with a time of 13.6x seconds. Yesterday, she earned a spot in the finals at 14.00 seconds despite nearly falling on the eighth hurdle.
6:15 p.m. -- Running in late two, Troy fell behind in the men's 4x100, but 100 meter specialist Lamar Hicks pulled the Trojans back to within a hair of third place. Despite the fourth-place finish, Troy qualified its team for the NCAA MidEast Regional with a time of 10.65.
6:05 p.m. -- The running finals have started and it was not a good start. A poor third exchange cost the Trojans a shot at the podium. Troy finished ninth with a time of 50.64.
5:30 p.m. -- Tiphanie Baker finished fifth in the hammer throw with a personal best of 49.30 meters (161-feet, 9-inches).. The mark occurred on her third throw of the prelimary round and placed her fourth, but she was passed by one competitor on the final throw.
4:45 p.m. -- It was a good news - bad news scenario for Troy during the second wave of field events. First the good news! Norman Austin became the ninth regional qualifier for Troy with a second-place finish in the javelin. His throw of 63.96 meters (209-feet, 10-inches), was 11 feet longer than his previous best. Another postive was Mike Nichols' effort in the trple jump. He posted a personal best of 14.36 meters in the prelims, then went 14.67 (48-feet, 1.75-inches) on his final attempts. He finished ninth overall.
The bad news concerns O'Darien Bassett in the triple jump. The sophomore earned a finals spot on his first attempt with a leap of 14.72 meters (48-feet, 3.5-inches), but landed awkwardly and felt a twinge in his right quadricep muscle. After running through on his second attempt for a foul, he withdrew from the competition. Having already qualified for the NCAA regional in this event and with Sun Belt long jump championship medal in his pocket, there was nothing to gain. As jumps coach Jill Lancaster put it "Do you want to be an All-American in a month, or be on the podium today?" Disappointing, but certainly the right decision in the long run.
3 p.m. -- Troy has picked up another medal as Ryan Baker finished third in the men's hammer throw. He threw 51.04 meters (167-feet, 5-inches) twice during the final round. Michael Heck and Ryan Schmeling also earned finals spots, finishing seventh and ninth, respectively.
2:30 p.m. -- The list of NCAA MidEast Regional qualifiers has grown to eight. before the championship, O'Darien Bassett (long jump, triple jump), Matavis Madden (400 meter dash), Tawanna Meadows (100 meter dash) and Agata Cichoszewska (triple jump) had booked tickets to Columbia, Mo. May 25-26. Tiphanie Baker earned her trip as the conference champion of the discus on Friday, while Lamar Hicks (100 meter dash), Mike Nichols (long jump) qualified Saturday. Juzil Rudolph made the qualifying standard in the triple jump on Sunday.
2 p.m. -- The first medal ceremony of Sunday has taken place and another Trojan took the podium. Agata Cichoszewska won the bronze medal in the triple jump with a mark of 12.49 meters (40-feet, 11.75-inches). Juzil Rudolph was just short, finishing fourth, but still earned a berth in the NCAA MidEast Regional competition. Her mark of 12.42 meters (40-feet, 9-inches) on her first jump was a season high by 15 inches. .
Shenita Howell made the final round of the javelin competition after a throw of 37.60 meters (123-feet, 4-inches), then improved to 38.43 meters (126--feet, 1-inch) on her fifth attempt to place seventh.
12 noon -- Final day competition has begun with more field events. Up first at noon is the men's hammer (Drew Oliver, Ryan Schmeling, Ryan Baker and Michael Heck), women's javelin (Agata Cichoszewska, Stephanie Yawn, Shenita Howell and Megan Young), men's pole vault (Scott Crews) and women's triple jump (Latoya Ragland, Semetria Matthews, Juzil Rudolph and Agata Cichoszewska)..
Yes, you did read that correctly... Agata has two events at the same time. Luckily, conference rules allow her to be placed into opposite flights and the venues are less than 30 yards apart. I wonder if she has ever tried jumping with a javelin in her hand?
