|
Louisville Opens Indoor Track Season with Two NCAA Qualifying Marks and One School Record
Dec. 5, 2008
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The University of Louisville's men and women's track and field teams opened the 2008-09 indoor season in impressive fashion with six event titles, two NCAA Championship provisional qualifiers and a school record on Friday at the Fast Start Invitational hosted by Southern Illinois University. Leading the way for the Cardinals women team was Central Arizona College transfer, Saravia Richardson. Richardson, a junior from Moreno Valley, Calif., won the preliminaries and set the school record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.57. She posted a time of 7.61 in the finals to take third overall. D'Ana McCarty finished first for the Cards in the weight throw with a throw of 67-00.50, the second best in school history. She finished over six feet ahead of the second-place finisher and earned a NCAA provisional qualifying mark. McCarty also finished second in the shot put with a throw of 49-03.00 behind freshman Khadija Abdullah who made an impressive debut winning the shot put title in her first collegiate meet with a throw of 50-11.00, earning an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Junior Rachel Gehret picked up right where she left off last season by winning the high jump with a jump of 5-08.00. Teammate Brittany Hotaling tied for second-place clearing 5-04.25. The women's team posted yet another first-place finish with junior Theresa Lewis winning both the preliminary and the final in the 60-meter hurdles with times of 8.53 (U of L fourth all-time) and 8.60, respectively. Joining the first-place finishers was junior Kat Alcorn who won the mile in 5:09.89, seven seconds ahead of the next runner. Freshman Keisha Lockhart finished second in the triple jump with a jump of 40-05.00, while fellow freshman Shane Mullany-Banks finished third in the 600-meter with a time of 1:40.06. The women's 4x400m relay team (Richardson, Kierstan Kirkland, Mullany-Banks, Lockhart) posted a third-place finish with a time of 4:01.18.
On the men's side, two-time All-American junior Tone Belt won the long jump with a jump of 24-01.00. He also finished second in the high jump clearing 6-10.25. It was a good start to the year for Belt who sat out last season due to a medical redshirt. Meanwhile, sophomore Kyle Gann finished third in the pole vault clearing 15-01.00, while teammate and fellow sophomore Chris Wolfe finished third in the 800-meters with a time of 1:55.78. The Cards will have a little over a month to prepare for their next meet on Jan. 10 at the Indiana Open in Bloomington, Ind. SIU Fast Start Invitational - Carbondale, Ill. |
|
|
