Friday, February 16, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- After one day of the 2007 Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Memorial Center in Johnson City, Tenn., the Jacksonville women and Gardner-Webb men sit atop the team standings with 62 and 34 points, respectively.

WOMEN:
Simone Clark became the first athlete to earn an individual title at the event, winning the pentathlon with 3,171 points and picking up 10 team points to give Jacksonville and early lead on the women's side.

Clark began the day with a first place finish in the 60-meter hurdles (9.02; 906 points), her best individual finish during the pentathlon. She finished second in the high jump (4-11.75; 644 points) and long jump (16-4 1/4; 554), third in the 800-meter run (2:37.23; 605 points) and fourth in the shot put (29-5 1/4; 462 points).

Jacksonville held onto its lead and continued to build on it by garnering 18 team points in the long jump, 10 team points in the shot put and the Dolphins added another 10-point effort in the distance medley relay.

In all, two A-Sun records were broken. Jacksonville's Janita Ocana, the reigning Most Outstanding Performer in the conference, bested the long jump mark with her jump of 19-6 3/4 (5.96m).

Gardner-Webb's Elizabeth Maxwell was also able to ink her name in the A-Sun record books. Maxwell won the shot put by eight inches and bested the former record of 42-6 1/4 (12.97m) with her put of 42-8 (13.00m).

Anna Marie Riccardi earned ETSU 10 points and returned to the podium for a second straight year after winning the high jump over North Florida's Elise Trexler. Both cleared 5-5 3/4 (1.67m), but in accordance to NCAA tie-breaking rules, Riccardi had fewer misses and was awarded the win.

Following one day of competition, the Dolphins have a strong hold on leader board and will be looking to complete Day 2 with much of the same in hopes of becoming back-to-back A-Sun indoor champions.

MEN:
The men kicked off the conference meet competing in four of the seven heptathlon events that will be finished on Saturday. ETSU's Michael Wright currently leads the event with 2,729 points, holding a 158 point lead over teammate Nicholas Chernikow.

When the afternoon session began, Belmont's Colin Magut wasted no time, winning the 3,000-meter run and setting a new A-Sun record along the way. Magut's time of 8:35.60 shaved over seven seconds off of the previous conference record and was good enough to nose-out Kennesaw State's Peikko Solla (8:35.63).

With two Bruins placing in the top six, Belmont grabbed an early points lead and was able to collect a total of 26 points which includes two first place finishes and two Atlantic Sun records. Along with Magut's record-breaking time in the 3,000-meter run, the distance medley relay team of Ben McGlothlin, Clint Hamm, Hillary Cheruiyot and Jacob Buckman all added their names to the record book with a time of 10:21.17.

Through three events, Belmont had a one point lead over Gardner-Webb with two events remaining in on Day 1, but the Bruins quickly slid down in the team standings as Gardner-Webb's Matt Knippen repeated as the shot put champion and Campbell's Sam Tilly won the long jump.

Both of their marks, 51-7 3/4 (15.79m) and 24-5 (7.44m), respectively, established new A-Sun records.

Following the first day of competition, Gardner-Webb hold a nine point lead over ETSU.

Day 2 of the event is slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. with the men's heptathlon competitors competing in the 60-meter dash. Fan can follow all the action live via the web courtesy of our partners at C.F.P.I. Timing.