University of Richmond Athletics
Crocus Wins Hammer And Javelin On First Day Of Atlantic 10 Championship
05/06/2006 | Women's Track & Field
May 6, 2006
Results
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Junior Beth Crocus won both the javelin and hammer to lead the Richmond women to fourth-place after the first day of the 2006 Atlantic 10 Championships being held at Charlotte's Irwin Belk Track & Field Center.
The Richmond men's team is in fifth entering the final day of the A-10 Championship, which starts Sunday at 8:45 a.m. Follow the results updated after each event here at RichmondSpiders.com.
The Spider women's team has 45 points through nine scored events, which puts them five points behind third-place Duquesne (50). Rhode Island has the lead on the women's side with 72.25 points and Charlotte is second at 67 points.
"The women took care of business today," Richmond women's head coach Lori Taylor said. "Now we have to come back tomorrow and really tighten up in the open events. We need to get as many points as we can to challenge for top two places and make a run at the team title."
On the men's side, senior John Ciccarelli and sophomore Hunter Willis each posted runner-up finishes to lead Richmond to fifth place with 32 points. Rhode Island also leads on the men's side with 91 points, while La Salle is in second with 65, Duquesne is in third at 55.33 and Charlotte is fourth at 54 points.
"There's not much the men could have done any better," Richmond men's coach Steve Taylor said. "Willis and Ciccarelli had great days and the 4x800 relay team was outstanding today. They all ran with a purpose. It was emotional."
Crocus won her second-straight A-10 hammer championship with a throw of 171-feet-0 and also took the javelin with a throw of 139-8, scoring 20 points for Richmond and putting herself in the running for the meet's Most Outstanding Field Performer. She also took ninth in the discus with a throw of 101-0.
"Great for Beth to win both titles," Lori Taylor said. "She competed and really put it together. They weren't her best throws of the season, there were less than ideal winds down here, but she threw well enough to win."
In winning the javelin title, Crocus knocked off her teammate and the defending Atlantic 10 champion in Richmond junior Lindsey Smith. Smith still had quite a day, scoring 17 points for the Spiders. She finished second to Crocus in the javelin with a throw of 132-11, took fourth in the hammer at 157-4 and placed seventh in the discus with a heave of 116-3.
"Lindsey had a good day, she scored good points for us in the javelin, hammer and discus," Lori Taylor said. "The discus is not her specialty, neither is the hammer, but she got valuable points. Lindsey and Beth took care of business today."
Richmond senior Nicole Kurtain broke the school record in the 3,000 steeplechase in 10:52.05 to place third. She was 2.05 seconds short of the NCAA Regional qualifying mark of 10:52.0. In the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles, Richmond freshman Jasmine Major had the fastest time in 14.54 seconds. She also broke her own school record in the 100 dash with the fourth-fastest time of the prelims in 12.06 seconds.
Richmond's 4x800 relay team of senior Danielle Eaton, senior Amy Thesing, freshman Emily Nagle and senior Diana Morse finished sixth in 9:20.91. Eaton ran a split of 2:12.5, Thesing ran 2:14.2, Nagle was at 2:37.4 and Morse ran the final leg in 2:16.5. "We were just one leg short today and you can't win a relay with 3 great legs", said Taylor.
Freshman Mary Bertram placed eighth in the 10,000 meters in 39:34.53 and junior Jenna Downey took 11th. Senior Katie Ryan finished 14th in the high jump, clearing 5-1.
On the men's side, Willis finished second in the 10,000 to earn all-conference honors, running 31:01.47 to beat his old personal best by about 25 seconds. His splits were 5:01.3 through 1,600 meters, 10:01.8 at two miles, 15:01.8 at three miles, 19:57.6 at four miles, 24:56.4 at five miles and 29:52.4 at six miles.
"The fashion which he finished second was tremendous," Steve Taylor said. "It was a really competitive race, he battled with Borelli, a fifth-year senior from Duquesne down stretch and his will to win was incredible."
Ciccarelli finished second in the 3,000 steeplechase in a personal best time of 9:08.20 to earn All-Atlantic 10 honors. He just missed the NCAA Regional qualifying mark of 9:07.00 by 1.2 seconds.
"Ciccarelli ran a good time, he wanted to win, and he was up against the defending champion in the steeple," Steve Taylor said. "He came up a little short in the steeple, but he will be back in the 5K tomorrow in what is likely one of the deepest events of the meet."
Richmond's 4x800 relay team of freshman Garrett Graham, freshman Jeff Strojny, freshman Greg Hoffman and sophomore Jonathan Molz took sixth in a time of 7:40.89, which was 25 seconds faster than their pervious-best time this season. Graham ran an 800 split of 1:54.7, Strojny ran 1:54.1, Hoffman was 1:56.4 and Molz finished it up at 1:55.1.
"That's a fantastic, fantastic race for us," Steve Taylor said. "That's 23 seconds faster than they have run all year. That's phenomenal for them. They really put it together when it counted and wanted a great finish in this event."
Freshman Pierre Turner, who is a member of the Richmond football team, made his collegiate track & field debut Saturday and finished third in the discus with a throw of 145-6. Fellow football player Chris Kondorossy was competing in just his second collegiate event and took 10th in the discus at 119-1.
"Pierre and Kondorossy are two freshmen throwers on football team, who came out her today and handled themselves very well," Steve Taylor said. "They had business on their minds and performed very well."
Junior Rusty Burrell finished fifth in the high jump, clearing 6-2 1/2 and sophomore Neil Slotterback finished sixth in the javelin with a throw of 172-1 which was about a personal best by nearly 10 feet.