University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Atlantic 10 Championships
Women's Track & Field Finishes Second At A-10 Championships
05/06/2007 | Women's Track & Field
May 6, 2007
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Richmond women's track & field team finished second at the 2007 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the second-straight year, edging out third-place Rhode Island by a half point Sunday at Charlotte's Irwin Belk Complex.
The runner-up spot came down to the final event, the 4x400-meter relay, and Richmond sophomore Jessica Young took the baton with the Spiders trailing Rhode Island.
Young caught the Rhode Island runner to give the Spiders a third-place finish in the event by just over a second to get six points and leave Rhode Island with five. That gave Richmond 121.5 points and Rhode Island with 120. Charlotte won its second-straight Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championship with 195 points.
This marks the fourth-straight runner-up finish at a conference championship for the Spider women's track & field/cross country program. Richmond also finished second at the 2006 A-10 Outdoor Championship, second at the conference cross country championship and second at the 2007 conference indoor championship.
"This was a total team effort to get second place," Richmond women's coach Lori Taylor said. "We always want to win this thing, but Charlotte had two many sprinters. The indoor meet is very much middle distance heavy. Outdoors you have to have some sprinters and jumpers. We certainly have jumpers coming in next year and we're working on getting more sprinters. A couple key girls could make a huge difference in point differential with Charlotte. While we want to win, we like to be at the top."
Young was the runner-up in both the 200 dash (24.15) and the 400 dash (52.90), finishing behind Charlotte senior Shareese Woods in both races. She also ran the anchor leg on the 4x400 relay team and 4x100 relay team. Richmond's 4x100 relay team set a school record with a time of 46.14 to finish second, edging Rhode Island in that event also.
"Jessica Young ran a 52.90 in the 400 and she was edged by Shareese Woods who, along with Jessica, is one of the best 200 and 400 runners in the country," Taylor said. "They were over three seconds ahead of third place."
Richmond freshman Heather Roush was named the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships' Most Outstanding Rookie for finishing second in both the discus and javelin, and taking seventh in the shot put Sunday (38-11 3/4). That gave the Spiders a clean sweep of the indoor and outdoor track & field and cross country Rookie of the Year awards. Freshman Amy Van Alstine earned the honor for both cross country and indoor track & field.
Freshman Kristen Crawford gave the Spiders their third Atlantic 10 Outdoor title of the weekend when she threw 44-8 3/4 in her final shot put to win the event.
"Those two had great weekends," Taylor said of Roush and Crawford. "Heather needed a big throw in her last throw in the javelin yesterday and she came up huge to pass a Rhode Island girl and finish second. Kristen was in second in the shot put for the entire competition, but put one out there on the her last throw and won the thing. For freshmen to do that, it's huge.
Senior Beth Crocus won the other two titles for the Spiders on Saturday, defending her conference titles in the hammer and javelin. Crocus finished sixth in the shot put on Sunday to give her 23 points for the weekend.
"Beth had a tremendous weekend," Taylor said. "She came back today and placed in the shot put, an event she doesn't really do much, and scored three crucial points for us."
Richmond 4x400 relay team took third in 3:50.14 with junior Tara Markey running a 58.6 split, freshman Jasmine Cottle running 57.9 seconds, sophomore Paloma Krakower running 60.0 and Young running 53.9.
The school-record setting 4x100 relay team was made up of freshman Monique Hawkins, sophomore Jasmine Major, Cottle and Young. They finished second in 46.14 seconds, which narrowly missed the NCAA Regional qualifying mark.
"Again they finished one spot ahead of Rhode Island, so that was huge," Taylor said. "They really put in some effort working on handoffs in the past two weeks. They had early season problems, but brought it together today and ran almost two seconds faster than their previous best."
Junior Tara Markey finished fourth in the 800 run in 2:14.97, winning the second fastest heat and finishing with a better time then all but three in the fast heat.
"She was in the second fastest 800 heat and it was very windy, making the conditions tough," Taylor said. "She beat her personal best by almost five seconds. If she was in the fast section we believe she would have given them a run for their money."
Major tied for fourth in the 100 dash (12.05), finished fourth in the 100 hurdles (14.50) and took seventh in the triple jump (37-2 1/2).
Freshman Amy Van Alstine placed fourth in the 1,500 run in 4:43.31 and fellow freshman Alyssa Mankin followed in fifth in 4:46.14. Van Alstine also placed fifth in the 5,000 in 17:46.92, followed by junior Kylee Schuler in sixth (17:51.49).
Hawkins took eighth in the 100 dash in 12.19 and freshman Kerry Kelly finished ninth in the 400 hurdles in 1:07.80. Cottle finished 12th in the 200 dash (26.23) and 17th in the 400 (59.18). Sophomore Emily Nagle took 12th in the 1,500 (4:55.36) and freshman Megan Ney took 15th in the triple jump with a leap of 34-11. Krakower took 19th in the 800 (2:22.01) and Mankin was 20th (2:23.04). Freshman JoAnna Ubiwa took 23rd in the 400 dash (1:02.09).
RICHMOND MEN
On the men's side, the Spiders finished 10th with 17 points. The highlight of the weekend for the Spiders was a runner-up finish for Hunter Willis in the 10,000 run (31:08.44) and the 4x800 relay team of sophomores Jeff Stojny, Sean Welsh, Derek Jensen and sophomore Greg Hoffman placed fourth in 7:37.09.
"We need more on the track side, we hold our own in the distance events, but we need more help in the sprints," Richmond head men's coach Steve Taylor said.
In the 800 run, junior Jonathan Molz placed eighth in 1:55.44 seconds, Strojny took 13th in 1:57.09 and Welsh was 19th in 2:00.51. Molz finished 10th in the 1,500 in 4:00.98, sophomore Garrett Graham was 13th at 4:06.82 and Jensen took 18th in 4:10.28.
Sophomore Chris Kondorossy finished 10th in the shot put with a toss of 39-3 ¾ and junior Tim Hightower took 13th in the 200 dash in 23.43 seconds. Freshman Jon Wilson finished 15th in the 5,000 run in 15:33.85 and freshman Andrew Benford took 16th in 15:42.76.
Richmond's 4x400 relay team of Strojny, Hoffman, Welsh and Jensen finished ninth in 3:28.25. Strojny ran a 100 split of 51.8, Hoffman went 52.0, Welsh went 51.3 and Jensen ran 52.7.
