Troy University Athletics
Trojans Qualify Two More for NCAA Regionals
4/12/2008 5:00:00 AM | Track & Field
BATON ROUGE, La. - Troy split their squads in half this weekend, sending one team to Mobile for the USA Invitational and the other to Baton Rouge for the LSU Invite. The split squads achieved success at both tracks, setting numerous PR's and qualifying a pair of athletes for the NCAA Regionals.
In Mobile, Norman Austin became the sixth athlete to qualify for the NCAA Regionals when he recorded a distance of 61.70 meters in the javelin. The distance by Austin places him 13th in the MidEast Region after the weekend. Meanwhile, sophomore Tiphanie Baker recorded another school record in her young career. Although not a regional qualifying mark, Baker broke the school record in the hammer with a distance of 50.84 meters.
The Trojans received their seventh NCAA qualifier in their first event of the Tiger Invite.
The Trojans started the day on the long jump runway with O'Darien Bassett claiming the championship in his first event of the season. He qualified for the NCAA Mideast Region with a jump of 7.81 meters (25'7”) on his first jump of the afternoon, before improving to 7.87 meters (25'10”) on his second jump in the finals.
The final distance was just three-quarters of an inch short of the school record that Bassett all ready owns. It also pushes him in to the top-ranking in the Mideast Region and second overall in the nation, as well as met the “B” Standard qualifying mark the United States Olympic Trials.
Tawanna Meadows was up to her old tricks in the 100-meter dash at the Tiger Invite. All ready a qualifier for the event in the NCAA Regionals, Meadows crossed the line in a new school record time of 11.31 seconds and move up to second in the region. She is also now listed as the fifth fastest runner in the nation in the event. She joins Bassett in meeting the "B" Standard for the U.S. Oympic Trials in June. After a 45-minute break, Meadows finished with a time of 23.66 - her second fastest time of the season (wind-aided).
Lamontrey Stamper finished fifth overall in the event, finishing with a jump 7.06 meters meeting a new season-high. Teammate Adrian Culbertson finished 10th in the event with a long jump of 6.42 meters.
On the women's side, Chontia Allen recorded a new PR with a jump of 5.25 meters on her next-to-last attempt in the finals. Agata Cichoszewska finished fifth overall in the event with a jump of 5.56 meters, while Juzil Rudolph finished sixth with a distance of 5.55 meters. Both athletes are still recovering from injuries suffered at the end of the indoor season.
Senior Karla Blankenship finished sixth in the pole vault with a season-high height of 3.10 meters (10'2").
The women's 4x100-meter relay team of Meadows, Juzil Rudolph, Shelisia Crawford and Jocelyn Williams finished fourth in the event, running for the first time as a team this season. They crossed the line in 47.02 seconds, and just missing the regional qualifying mark of 45.70 seconds.
Meanwhile, the men's 4x100-meter relay team finished third in the event, with a time of 40.96 seconds. The team of Tony McLeod (first leg), Burke Leonce (second leg), Desmond Brown (third leg) and Lamar Hicks (anchor) narrowly missed the NCAA regional qualifying time of 40.66 seconds.
In the men's 1500-meters, Tim Landry crossed the line sixth in his section at 4:03.02, a new personal best for the freshman. In the same event, Jeremy Moujoodi crossed the line third in Section Two with a time of 4:04.10 to finish ninth overall, just behind Landry. Kelly Harrington finished ninth in the 1500-meters running a time of 5:01.63, her second-fastest time of the season behind the Jaguar Premier.
In the next event on the track, Porsche Holden and Juzil Rudolph competed in the 100-meter hurdles in Section One of the finals. Holden finished with a new PR, running a time of 14.25 seconds, while Rudolph finished with a time of 14.67 seconds. Allen competed in Section Two of the same event, finishing with a time of 15.94, her second new PR on the afternoon.
A day after competing in the decathlon, Leander McKenzie was back on the track competing in the 110-meter hurdles for the Trojans Saturday afternoon. The sophomore crossed the line second only to LSU's Ryan Fotenot with a time of 14.30 seconds - his third fastest time on the season.
In the 400-meters, Tatiana Thomas finished third in her section of the 400-meter dash, running a time of 56.45 seconds. The mark set a new PR for Thomas, breaking her old mark of 56.79 set at the FSU Relays. Meanwhile on the men's side, Troy's Matavis Madden ran in Section Two of the finals, crossing in a time of 48.84 and finishing second in the section, while teammates Michael Niezgoda and Culbertson crossed the line in Section Three in 50.60 and 51.89 seconds, respectively. Madden's time was good enough to place him seventh overall in the event.
In the men's 100-meter, Hicks finished fifth in the fastest section of the afternoon, running a time of 10.58 seconds. Teammates Leonce and McLeod finished first and second in their heat respectively with times of 10.80 and 10.88 seconds. The time by Leonce is a new season-high and a new PR, bettering his mark last season.
After running in the 100-meter hurdles earlier in the afternoon, Holden set a new PR in the 400-meter hurdles while finishing second to LSU's Nickiesha Wilson. The freshman crossed the line in 1:02.20 and missed the NCAA qualifying mark by just two seconds. Meanwhile, on the men's side, Brown ran his first 400-meter hurdle race of the season and finished with a time of 54.14 seconds, finishing sixth in the event.
In the 800-meters, Niezgoda finished 13th overall with a time of 2:02.63, while on the women's side, Harrington finished 13th overall with a time of 2:31.61. Williams set a new PR in the event with a time of 2:27.50 and a 10th place finish.
In the women's 200-meter dash, Crawford got a good jump in lane two and finished second in her heat with a new PR time of 24.89 seconds. She was joined in the heat by Rudolph, who finished fourth with a time of 25.68 seconds to set a new PR. Meanwhile, in the men's 200-meter dash, Hicks finished first in his heat with a time of 21.12 seconds. The time would have been good enough to qualify for the NCAA Regionals, but was not a legal time due to the wind reading at Bernie Moore Stadium Saturday afternoon. After battling each other on the 100-meter dash, Leonce and McLeod dualed it out again in the 200-meters. Once again, Leonce finished in first in the section with a time of 21.69 seconds, while McLeod finished second with a time of 21.87 seconds.
The time by Hicks in the 200-meter dash was the third fastest of the day, trailing only LSU star Richard Thompson's 20.74 seconds and Tiger Olympian Michael Matthews.
Jenean Corcoran ran the 5,000-meters, her only race of the day, and finished with a season-best and PR time of 19:06.72. It was the first time that she has run the event during the spring season during her Trojan career. Meanwhile, Moujoodi finished fourth on the men's side with a time of 15:34.78, finishing just six seconds out of third place.
In the men's pole vault, Jeremy Cline set a new season-best and a new PR with his height of 4.45 meters (14'7 1/4"), while his teammate Joseph Callaway also posted a height of 4.45 meters. Cline finished fifth overall, while Callaway finished seventh in the event.
In the last field events of the day, Cichoszewska finished third in the event with a jump of 12.04 meters (39'6") in the women's triple jump. Rudolph finished seventh in the shot put with a distance of 11.10 meters (36'5").
In the final running events of the day, the women's 4x400-meter relay team of Holden, Thomas, Crawford and Williams ran a time of 3:55.48, good for fifth place. In the men's 4x400-meter relay, the team of Brown, Madden, Leonce and Hicks ran a time of 3:20.84, good for fifth place.
The Trojans are in action next week at Louisiana State University in the LSU Alumni Gold beginning Saturday morning. The Trojans will face Sun Belt Conference foes South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette, as well as national powers LSU and Texas A&M in the meet.
COMPLETE FINAL RESULTS WILL BE POSTED WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE FOR BOTH MEETS.
