Date Posted: 3/1/2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The 2008 Atlantic Sun Indoor Track and Field Championship proved to be a battle for second place as Jacksonville continued its domination in the sport. The Dolphins won their third straight team title with a rousing 74-point victory at ETSU's Memorial Center. Both Jacksonville's margin of victory and team total of 157 points rank as Championship records.

The Dolphins joined Belmont's men's cross country team as the only two teams in the Atlantic Sun with active conference title streaks of at least three. Natasha Harvey and Shaquania Lundy anchored the squad, combining to score 60 points, more than every other team except one, Belmont. One day after taking the top two spots in the long jump, Harvey and Lundy claimed first and second in the triple jump. Again Harvey edged out her teammate with a jump of 40-03.25 (12.27m) to Lundy's 39-05.00 (12.01m). Harvey broke Lundy's meet record of 11.52m set at the 2007 championship. For her prowess in the jumps, she earned the Field Performer of the Year award.

Harvey won her third event of the championship, the 60-meter hurdles, part of a one-two-three-four finish in the race for the Dolphins. Lundy picked up her third second-place finish at the meet, edging out Harvey by one-one hundredth of a second in the 60-meter dash. Jacksonville also added up titles in the 400-meter dash and in the 800-meter run from a pair of freshman, Unique Singleton in the 400 and Anastasia Fokina in the 800.

Belmont placed second for the second straight year, moving up from fourth on Friday after earning two individual titles. In the pole vault, senior Christina Coppin, the runner-up at the 2007 Championships, defeated Gardner-Webb's Kelly Bridges, the 2006 and 2007 champion, with a record-setting vault of 11-11.75 (3.65m). Lynette Rives, who finished in the 200-meter dash in 2007, became the first woman in league championship history to break 24 seconds in the race, finishing in a school-record 23.97 seconds. Rives also anchored the winning 4x400-meter relay

UNF emerged from a four-team battle take third, besting Gardner-Webb by three points. Amanda Davey finished second in both the 3,000-meter run and the 5,000-meter run. Host ETSU took fifth place with the help of wins by Judy Johnson in the 60-meter dash and Zachlynn Blackburn in the weight throw. Kennesaw State finished sixth with Campbell seventh.

USC Upstate's Emily Tangwar added two more gold medals to her win in the 3,000 from Friday, winning the mile and the 5,000. She won her second Freshman of the Year award, backing up her win from the cross country season and won the women's Track Performer of the Year award, becoming the first freshman in the three-year history of the Championship to claim that honor. Tangwar scored all 30 of the Spartans' points. Lipscomb rounded out the field, scoring four points.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Related Links:
 • Atlantic Sun Women's Indoor Track and Field Championship