Monday, January 19, 2009

For the second week in a row, the Lipscomb men’s and women’s track & field teams posted solid performances, this time at the Southern Illinois University SASF Invite.

“I actually expected our performance to dip this week,” said Lipscomb coach Bill Taylor. “For the distance runners in particular this was the first week of quality workouts. They worked very hard with intervals and hills and got nice and sore. So I was surprised we did so well. In perspective of our full season goals, we are in great position and I think these solid early season performances are a prelude to an amazing outdoor track season in a few months.”

Steven Lindsey was the top finisher on the day for the men, finishing third in the men’s high jump with a leap of 6 feet 4 inches. On the track Ryan Chastain led the way in his first meet of the year, posting a time of 4:24.25 in the mile for a fifth place finish. For the women, Caitlin Anderson also posted a fifth place finish in the women’s 3000m with a time of 11:00.24, her fastest ever indoor 3K time.

Jenny Randolph won her heat of the women’s 800m with a 2:26.90, a 3 second PR, good for 11th place overall. In her first race of the year Carolyn Latham ran an all time PR of 5:25.93 for the mile, good for 13th place overall and Clint Carter ran a solid early season 800m in 2:01.45 for 11th overall.

“I’m really impressed with the effort and attitude,” said Taylor. “We have a long way to go athletically, however we are definitely on the right track. These are both very young teams that need to get more experience. And since we just started quality training and train right through the indoor season, anything we get here is a bonus. That being said, I do expect our performance to improve significantly at the next indoor meet.

“We get two weeks of quality training before that meet, so they should finally reap some benefits from their hard workouts. We still won’t be fresh, but we should be better. The enthusiasm on the team is contagious and the fight each athlete is showing lets the rest of the team know we are all in this for each other. These first two meets went as well as I could have expected.”

Also of note, Lipscomb Assistant Coach Buford Williams won the long jump competition for the second meet in a row competing unattached with a jump of 7.50m (24 feet 7 inches).

Other performances on the day:

Weight Throw:

Kristen Ratzlaff, 7.88m, 21st place

60m Dash:

Sequina Caro, 8.56, 35th place

400m Dash:

Valerie Winkler, 1:03.93, 22nd place

800m:

Laura Stewart, 2:31.75, 15th place

Shannon Shoemake, 2:39.98, 23rd place

Meagan Hoar, 2:41.88, 26th place

Louisa Van Batavia, 2:42.80, 29th place

Paloma Floden, 2:48.10, 33rd place

200m Dash:

Sequina Caro, 29.38, 46th place

4x400m Relay:

Team A: Valerie Winkler, Jenny Randolph, Carolyn Latham, Shannon Shoemake, 4:26.76, 10th place

Team B: Meagan Hoar, Laura Stewart, Paloma Floden, Sequina Caro, 4:45.80, 13th place

Weight Throw:

Alex Jerkins, 11.19m, 18th place

Shot Put:

Alex Jerkins, 13.40m, 13th place

60m Dash:

Michael Knox, 7.28, 19th place

Brock Lutes, 7.42, 26th place

Chad Roberts, 7.48, 31st place

Joey Lever, 7.66, 43rd place

Dustin Little, 7.81, 47th place

Mile:

Nathan Brame, 4:34.10, 19th place

David Wolfe, 4:34.30, 20th place

Jonathan Williams, 4:41.74, 33rd place

Tyler Youngs, 4:42.04, 34th place

Jeff Hoover, 4:45.46, 37th place

Paul Wright, 4:45.77, 38th place

Cormac Carolan-Tolbert, 4:49.08, 44th place

400m Dash:

Andrew Jones, 53.55, 31st place

Jacob Nelson, 55.25, 37th place

Ben Fennell, 55.62, 39th place

800m:

Andrew Shankles, 2:04.41, 20th place

Hunter Hethcoat, 2:06.97, 25th place

Aaron Todd, 2:08.70, 29th place

Paul Wright, 2:10.80, 31st place

Jeff Hoover, 2:11.75, 32nd place

Cormac Carolan-Tolbert, 2:13.41, 34th place

Josh Baker, 2:15.58, 37th place

200m:

Brock Lutes, 23.54, 24th place

Chad Roberts, 23.91, 31st place

Michael Knox, 23.94, 32nd place

Dustin Little, 24.69, 44th place

Joey Lever, 24.71, 45th place

3000m:

Trace Carlson, 9:24.91, 16th place

Chad Martin, 9:26.40, 18th place

4x400m Relay:

Team A: Michael Knox, Dustin Little, Brock Lutes, Chad Roberts, 3:29.97, 9th place

Team B: Andrew Jones, Ryan Chastain, Clint Carter, Jacob Nelson, 3:34.93, 11th place

Team C: Ben Fennell, Nathan Brame, Jonathan Williams, Aaron Todd, 3:44.18, 15th place

Team D: Tyler Youngs, David Wolfe, Hunter Hethcoat, Joey Lever, 3:46.36, 16th place

The Lipscomb Men’s and Women’s Track & Field Teams will next be in action at the TSU Invite in Nashville Jan. 31st at 8 a.m..