Troy University Athletics
Several Trojans Qualify for Finals
5/10/2009 1:15:00 AM | Track & Field
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Several Troy University track and field student-athletes qualified for Sunday finals in their events, while others scored points for the squad in their finals on Saturday.
Junior Tiphanie Baker was one of those student-athletes who scored points for the women's team as she earned her second medal in as many days at the conference meet. Baker finished third in the event with a toss of 14.07 meters, earning a bronze medal to go along with the gold she won on Friday in the discus.
Although not medaling, senior Agata Cichoszewska finished fourth in the long jump for the Trojans with a jump of 6.01 meters. She was joined in earning points on the women's side Saturday by Kapri Hockaday with a seventh-place finish in the high jump. Hockaday finished the day with a jump of 1.60 meters to earn points and help the Trojan women into eighth place on the day with 27.60 points entering Sunday's competition.
Senior Jenean Corcoran scored a point for the Trojans in her last conference meet as a collegiate athlete, finishing eighth in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:57.85. Only 43 seconds separated the top eight runners in the field, with FIU's Paola Reategui winning the event in a time of 11:14.13.
On the men's side, junior Lamontrey Stamper narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA Regionals in the long jump. Stamper finished the day with a jump of 7.32 meters, just 0.02 meters short of the regional mark. He was joined in earning points for the Trojans by a trio of multi-athletes earlier in day. Senior Mike Conley finished fifth in the decathlon with a total of 6448 points, while junior Leander McKenzie finished sixth with 6402 points and Grant Bullington eighth with 6037 points.
Although she did not score points for the Trojans, sophomore Chontia Allen gutted out the heptathlon on Saturday, she finished 12th overall with 4147 points - her best finish at the conference meet in two seasons in the event.
With the finals behind them, the Trojans focused on the preliminary heats and qualifying for the Sunday finals.
Naquita Rowe set herself up nicely in the 100-meter hurdles, running along side her teammate Latoya Ragland in one of the heats on Saturday. Ragland won the heat, and is seeded third for the finals, by running a time of 13.76 seconds. However, she enabled her teammate Rowe to qualify for the NCAA Regionals at the end of the month with a time of 13.88 seconds. Rowe will be seeded fourth in the finals.
McKenzie also set himself up in the 110-meter hurdles finals for Sunday with a first-place finish in the preliminaries. The junior ran a time of 14.14 seconds, outrunning his competition by 0.36 seconds. A pair of sprinters will make an appearance in the finals of the 100-meters on Sunday as Antonio McLeod and Lamar Hicks will be seeded seventh and eighth for the finals. Ironically, both runners ran a time of 10.60 seconds but McLeod will be seeded higher because his time was 10.591 and Hicks was 10.592. The duo missed the NCAA qualifying time by just 0.05 seconds in the event.
Junior Matavis Madden also qualified for the finals, by running a time of 47.94 seconds in the 400-meters. He will be seeded seventh in the finals on Sunday afternoon.
A pair of Trojan women sprinters narrowly missed the finals in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday, as Hockaday and Shay Matthews missed the cut by less than a second on Saturday. Sophomore Michael Alexander also narrowly missed the finals of the 400-meter hurdles, on the men's side, with a time of 57.54 seconds. He missed the cut by just 0.16 seconds on Saturday night.
In the final preliminary event of the night, Hicks qualified for the finals of the 200-meter dash with a NCAA qualifying time of 21.30 seconds. He will be seeded sixth in the finals of the event, 0.01 second from seventh and 0.04 seconds from eighth over a pair of North Texas runners.
The meet will conclude with finals on Sunday. The last event is scheduled to start at 9 pm at Blue Raider Field on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
For up-to-the-minute information on Troy University Athletics, check back with www.TroyTrojans.com. For ticket information, contact the Troy University Athletics Ticket Office at 1-877-878-WINS.
NOTE: The discus championship by Tiphanie Baker (54.56 meters/179') not only broke a school record, but it also broke the Sun Belt Conference Championship record and the stadium record at Blue Raider Field. The old championship record (174'6") was set by Louisiana Tech's April Malveo in 1998, while the stadium record was held by Southeast Missouri State's Lutricia Putnam in 2000 (46.10 meters).
