University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships
Women Take Third As Van Alstine Wins Top Track Honor, Men Ninth
05/08/2011 | Women's Track & Field
May 8, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Senior Amy Van Alstine won both the 1,500m and the 5,000m events on Sunday and was named the A-10 Championship Women's Track Most Outstanding Performer as the Richmond women finished third overall at the 2011 Track & Field Championship. The men's team took home ninth.
Van Alstine set both the school and meet record in taking home the 1,500m title Sunday, winning in a time of 4:19.38 - the first sub-4:20 time in league history. She followed that victory up later Sunday afternoon by winning gold in the 5,000m in 16:39.56 en route to the program's first-ever Most Outstanding Track Performer award.
Nicol Traynor (16:41.87) was right behind Van Alstine in the 5,000m as the Spiders went 1-2 in the event. Jill Prentice took home 10th (17:37.47).
Van Alatine stands as the first-ever Spider to win the women's 5,000m and is Richmond's third all-time women's 1,500m champion after Ruth Chege won it in 2002 and 2003.
Senior Matt Llano also claimed the victory in the men's 5,000m, leading wire-to-wire and becoming the second Spider in three years to win that event after senior Andrew Benford was the A-10 champion in 2009. Freshman Ryan Lee closed hard to claim fourth in this year's 5,000m (14:44.36).
Also for the men, senior Tremayne Graham, who is a starting cornerback on the Richmond Football team, won the bronze medal in the 100m (10.74), was eighth in the 200m (21.63) and ran on the ninth-place 4x100m relay with Christian Parker, Darryl Hamilton and Derek Mayo - also Spider Football players.
The host Charlotte 49ers won the women's team title with 169.5 points, followed by Dayton (133), Richmond (99.5), Duquesne and Rhode Island (93.5) to round out the top five. The Spiders third-place showing ends a streak of three-straight years finishing fifth.
Also Sunday for the Spiders, Meghan Hart took home a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon (3,986 point), while Ann O'Toole was eighth (3,866).
Hart in the heptathlon was fourth in 100m hurdles (16.11), seventh in the high jump (1.43m), ninth in the shot (8.05m), sixth in the 200m (27.08), third in the long jump (5.05m), fourth in the javelin (26.85m) and ninth in the 800m (2:34.07).
For O'Toole in the heptathlon, she was fifth in high jump (1.46m), fifth in the shot (8.55m), 10th in the 200m (28.19), fourth in the long jump (4.97m), 12th in the javelin (18.57m) and second in the 800m (2:23.17).
O'Toole also took seventh in 100m hurdles event (16.56) and X'auntasia Johnson was sixth in the triple jump (12.08m) and broke the school record of 12.02m set by former Spider Megan Ney last year.
Stay tuned to RichmondSpiders.com this week for SpiderTV highlights and interviews from this weekend's Championship.
