Thursday, February 17, 2011

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Kennesaw State and Jacksonville enter the 2011 Atlantic Sun Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships eyeing successful defenses of their league titles as the Owls men’s squad claimed the 2010 conference crown by narrowly topping 2009 champion ETSU, while the Dolphins have captured all five A-Sun indoor titles.

Action gets underway from the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday with the women’s pentathlon and concludes Saturday afternoon with the 4x400 meter relays, followed by the awards presentation at 4:30 p.m.

Championship Notes:

15 of the 17 women’s individual events feature former champions of the event, while five events pit former winners against one another.

On the flip side, look forward to a bunch of first-time champions on the men’s side as only 9 of 17 individual events feature past winners at the indoor championship. Four of the nine have past winners squaring off against one another including USC Upstate’s Gilbert Kemboi and ETSU’s Ben Ronoh in two events (3,000 and 5,000m).

Going into the women’s championship, nine recorded performances rank better than the A-Sun Championship meet record meaning that there stands a strong chance for several all-time marks to fall during the two-day event. Three of those top performances of the 2011 season came from the 400-meter dash, while two more come in the 800-meter run.

The same stands true about the men’s side with nine performances from the 2011 indoor season currently better than the A-Sun Meet mark. The 800m run, triple jump and weight throw feature two apiece.

In total, four student-athletes will vie for their third individual event title of their careers. (Jacksonville’s Unique Singleton, Women’s 400m; Jacksonville’s Hillary Crook, Women’s Shot Put; Campbell’s Adonnis Jones, Men’s 60m Hurdles and ETSU’s Jarrod Burton, Weight Throw). Only one women’s athlete has accomplished the feat (Natasha Harvey, Jacksonville; 60m Hurdles), while two men have taken home gold in the same event three times (Harold Sims, Campbell; 400m and Gianni Catalano, Kennesaw State, 800m).

Catalano will seek to become only the second male athlete to take gold in one event in four championships to tie him with former teammate Jerome McKenzie. He captured the high jump through last year.

Jacksonville has won every single Atlantic Sun Indoor Track & Field Championship since its inception in 2006, but the gap might be closing between them and the rest of the conference as last year’s 57-point differential between first and second place was their smallest margin of victory since the inaugural championship, when the Dolphins topped FAU by 14 points.

Kennesaw State, who claimed last year’s championship by four points, eyes its third conference title, which would tie ETSU for the most A-Sun Indoor titles. The two teams have combined to win all Men’s Championships and have finished as the top two teams in each past three championships.

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