Troy University Athletics
Tiphanie Baker Wins Championship
5/9/2009 12:30:00 PM | Track & Field
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - One year ago, then-sophomore Tiphanie Baker walked away from the throwing pits at the University of North Texas disappointed with her performance at the Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships, but vowed to return to form the next season. The now-junior made good on the promise as she captured her first conference championship of the outdoor season on Friday, the first day of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Baker, who has all ready qualified for the NCAA Regionals, bettered her regional mark in the event with a throw of 54.56 meters. The mark also sets a new personal best for Baker, and breaks the school record she set earlier this season. The junior won the event by six meters over her closest competitor, Destiny Montemayor of ULM.
Senior Monique Jordan just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the discus with a throw of 45.05 meters, just missing a medal by three meters. The duo will compete again this weekend in the hammer throw and the shot put.
Meanwhile, senior Ryan Schmeling was the top male finisher in the discus for the men for the Trojans, finishing eighth with a throw of 47.50 meters to earn a point for Troy overall in the meet. Teammate Michael Martin finished 11th overall with a throw of 43.76 meters.
In other scoring events of the day on the first day of competition, Anastacia Limo finished 17th in the 10,000-meter run on the women's side with a time of 42:45.49; while on the men's side, Jeremy Moujoodi finished 11th overall with a time of 33:51.44 - missing out on scoring in the meet by just one minute.
The meet started, not with individual scoring events, but with the grueling heptathlon and decathlon events.
Sophomore Chontia Allen is currently 14th overall in the heptathlon standings with 2475 points, but with more events left on the docket Saturday, she has a chance to move up and score points for the Trojans in the event. Her best finish of the day came in the 200-meters, the fourth event of the day, in which she finished eighth with a time of 26.70 seconds to earn 788 points in the overall heptathlon.
"Chontia is doing well," assistant coach Chip Brundage said. "She is in the mix to score some points and is just doing her best at this point with her youth in all of the events."
Meanwhile, in the decathlon, junior Leander McKenzie is in the mix for a medal after day one. He is sitting in third place with a total of 3516 points, just 300 points behind the leader. Grant Bullington is in seventh place and Mike Conley ninth after the first day of the event.
"Leander had a great opening day," Brundage said. "He had a good 400 time, won the shot and jumped well in the high jump. He should have a fantastic day on Saturday with the hurdles being the first event of the day, and then the throws should help him move up in the standings. Grant is also sitting in contention to score some points with his vault on Saturday. Mike still has the hurdles and the javelin to help him move up into medal contention."
McKenzie was able to get to third with his performance in the shot put, winning the event with a throw of 12.24 meters to earn 621 points for himself. He also finished second in the 400-meters and third in the 100-meters to get into medal contention. Meanwhile, Bullington won an event in the decathlon on Friday, winning the high jump with a clearance of 2.04 meters.
The meet resumes Saturday morning with the conclusion of the heptathlon and decathlon, and procedes into Sunday evening with the conclusion of the meet.
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