Friday, May 15, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Kennesaw State Owls took an early lead in day one of the 2009 Atlantic Sun Outdoor Track & Field Championship at UNF's Hodges Stadium with 61 points after five events. Day two starts tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. continuing the women’s heptathlon.

Three-time defending champion, Jacksonville, finished Friday in second with 36 points. The hosting Ospreys sit in third with 26 points while ETSU and Campbell take the fourth and fifth spots with 12 and 10 points respectively. USC Upstate and Belmont round out the seven-school field.

Jacksonville's lone senior, Natasha Harvey, completed her search for a fourth-consecutive gold medal in the long jump, leaping 6.30 meters. Harvey became the first A-Sun athlete since 2001 to win four consecutive titles in an individual event. The last four-time consecutive event winner was UCF’s Katara Beard in the shot put.

Jill Arthur and Suzzette Van-Lare aided to the Kennesaw State points total posting second- and third-place finishes posting marks of 5.63m and 5.55m in the long jump, respectively.

Harvey's teammate Hillary Crook took the title in the shot put, topping the competition by 1.01 meters with a mark of 13.57 meters. UNF's Kayla Mobley followed with a silver medal posting a 12.56m mark. KSU's Chiquita Hawthorne posted a third-place finish with 12.47m.

Kennesaw State jumped ahead in the 10,000-meter run after Mackenzie Howe jumped in front of USC Upstate's Jemli Sang to claim the gold medal and a time of 36:44.06. Sang finished less than 10 seconds behind her with a time of 36:54.73. Howe’s teammate Erin Sutton took the bronze, running a 37:40.92.

The Owls topped the hammer throw as well as Jessica Irizarry tossed a second-best mark in A-Sun history, 49.58 m. The 2008 Hammer Throw Champion Zachlynn Blackburn of ETSU took a second-place finish tossing out a 49.10m mark. Jacksonville’s Laura Phillips finished third with a throw of 48.40m.

Anne DelBovo topped the pole vault shooting to 3.55 meters. Kennesaw State’s Rosemary McCollum landed in second with a 3.40m mark followed by Campbell’s Courtney Raynor's 3.25m vault.

After four events in the heptathlon, Tiffany Bromfield from Jacksonville leads with 2963 points. Bromfield's teammate, Stacey Young, sits in second with 2695 points while Kennesaw State's Jessica Wilcox holds down third with 2444 points. Young led the field in the 100-meter hurdles, Wilcox came in second. Campbell's Shelly Mclean claims the fourth spot with 2346 points after a first spot finish in the 200-meter dash. UNF's Christina King finished the day in fifth with 2142 points and USC Upstate's Erin Tyre came in sixth with 1896 pints. King's teammate Andrea Bridges rounded out the list in seventh with 1798. Bridges placed second in the high jump with a mark of 1.61 meters.

Bromfield set a superlative record in the shot put for a heptathlon event. Her mark of 12.78m passed her own mark of 11.77m, set at last year's Championship. Bromfield captured the pentathlon at the 2009 Indoor Championships in a record 3437 points

The Atlantic Sun Conference is an 11-member league committed to Building Winners for Life. The A-Sun stands for achievement with integrity in both the academic and athletic arenas, with a focus on the balance between the two for our student-athletes. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun boasts six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun includes a blend of the most prestigious and dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.