University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Atlantic 10 Championship
Women Take Fourth, Men Eighth At A-10 Indoor Championships
02/16/2008 | Women's Track & Field
Feb. 16, 2008
Women's Results
KINGTON, R.I. - The University of Richmond women's track & field team took fourth, while the men's finsihed eighth at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships Saturday at Mackel Field House in Kingston, R.I. The Spiders combined for six medals in the event, led by the gold from the women's 4x800 relay of Diana Filtz, Amy Van Alstine, Nicol Traynor and Tara Markey and a silver from Andrew Benford in the 3,000.
Women's Recap
The Spider women finished with 77 points to finish fourth in 12-team event but were just 14 points shy of second. Charlotte took both the women's and men's title, scoring 180 points on the women's side. Dayton was second in the women's meet (91 points), followed by Rhode Island (85), Richmond (77) and La Salle (73) to round out the top five.
In a tightly-contested race, the women's 4x800 relay scored 10 points and captured Richmond's lone gold medal in the Championships. A senior, Markey brought the relay home, beating out La Salle at the wire by .67 seconds, Charlotte by .04 and finishing in a time of 9:20.26.
"That was a great race and a very exciting finish," said director of track & field Lori Taylor. "I told them when it was over that it was a great way to end the indoor season and start the outdoor. It was extra special that Tara - our senior - was able to win it for us."
Van Alstine also captured the bronze in the mile, finishing the race in a lightning-fast and personal-best time of 4:52.62. She trailed the winner - Charlotte's Aja Jackson - by just a second at the wire.
"That was an unbelievable race in how fast it was," said Taylor. "Those winning times are very, very good mile times. It was a pretty tactical race in the beginning and Aja just has a little more leg strength and was able to win it."
A trio of underclassmen had big days for the Spiders in the field events, as sophomore Megan Ney finished second in the long jump and fourth in the high jump, freshman X'auntasia Johnson was third in the triple jump and freshman Samella Koroma was fourth in the weight throw.
Ney's mark in the long jump of 5.58m was a personal-best and good for the silver medal. She posted a jump of 1.65m in the high jump and also ran on the Spiders' sixth-place distance medley relay (12:36.19).
Johnson captured the bronze in the triple jump, leaping 11.52m to edge out Richmond junior Jasmine Major (11.37), who finished fourth.
Koroma took fourth in the weight throw with a final mark of 16.24m, setting personal-records in each successive throw in the meet. Freshman Monica Howard's mark of 15.11m in the weight throw moved her into eighth place and into the points. That throw was a personal-best for Howard by over a foot after setting her previous P.R. by over two feet last week. Freshman K'Lynn Robinson was seventh in shot (11.83m), scoring two more points for the Spiders.
"That was pretty exciting to get some great performances by freshmen in weight throw," said Taylor. "Samella set a personal-record every time she threw today and Monica was able to get into the scoring with another personal-best."
Filtz led much of the 1,000 before finishing fourth in a personal-record time of 2:57.16. Markey was sixth in the 800, clocking a time of 2:19.32. In the 3,000, Van Alstine was just edged out of medal contention and finished fourth in 9:56.69. Nicol Traynor was fifth (10:00.67). Kylee Schuler garnered a fourth-place showing in the 5,000 in 17:55.71. Major took seventh in the 55 (7.21) after posting a preliminary time of 7.18.
Men's Recap
The men, who do not compete in the field events and have a limited number of sprinters, scored 31 points to finish eighth - nine points behind seventh-place Saint Joseph's. Charlotte's 181 points won the meet, followed by Rhode Island (156), La Salle (112), Temple (87) and Massachusetts (58) in the top five.
Andrew Benford captured the silver in the 3,000 to lead the way for the Spider men in the Championships. He and La Salle's Joe Dare separated themselves from the pack, with Dare beating the Spiders' sophomore to the wire by a second. Benford's time was 8:29.66, while Jonathan Wilson took seventh in the event in 8:42.39.
"That was one of the best races of the day," said head men's coach Steve Taylor. "It was one of Andrew's best times in that event and he ran very competitively from start to finish. The race went out slow, it built momentum and he and Joe pulled away and it was a battle over the last three laps."
Jeff Strojny ran well to finish fifth in the 800 (1:57.01), while Jonathan Molz took sixth in the mile (4:17.93). Matt Llano and Hunter Willis were both in the points in the 5,000 with Llano taking sixth (14:54.18) and Willis seventh (15:06.81).
"I was very happy with Willis' performance today," said Taylor. "He has been sick, he hasn't run much recently and I didn't even know if he was going to race today. But he's a senior; he toed the line and put up a strong performance."
Just out of the points in the 5,000 was redshirt freshman Calvin Virgilio. The Penn State transfer finished ninth in 15:22.64, shaving nearly 30 seconds off his previous personal-best.
Both relays had strong showings with the distance medley capturing the bronze in 10:21.27 while the 4x800 took sixth in 8:00.38. Sean Welsh, Greg Hoffman, Derek Jensen and Llano ran the DMR which was just two-tenth of a second shy of the silver. Strojny, Hoffman, Molz and Benford ran the 4x800.
"Both were exciting races," said Taylor. "The DMR was just shy of second-place with Llano getting out-leaned at the line. Benford came back just 15 minutes after running the 3,000 to anchor the 4x800 and they ran well."
The Spiders outdoor season begins March 21 at the Wake Forest Open.
