Men First, Women Third Entering Final Day of BIG EAST Championships
May 5, 2007
STORRS, Conn. - Led by five event champions and nine total medalists, the 15th-ranked University of Louisville men's track and field team leads after Saturday's second day of competition at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships at the George J. Sherman Family Complex on the campus of the University of Connecticut, while the Cardinal women stand in third place overall. The Cardinal men won five of seven event finals on Saturday to score 96 total points and earn a 66-point lead over second place Notre Dame with 33 points. Syracuse stands in third with 22 points, followed by UConn in fourth with 21 points, USF in fifth with 20 points and Georgetown in sixth with 18 points. With eight events completed on the women's side, the Cards scored 38.5 points to trail only first place Notre Dame with 40 points and second place Connecticut with 39 points. Rutgers is fourth with 32 points followed by Cincinnati in fifth with 31 points and Georgetown in sixth with 29 points. "This was a very good day for our team and it puts us in good position entering tomorrow's final day," said U of L head coach Ron Mann. "I'm extremely proud of the way our kids competed today and the way all of our champions and medalists stepped up. In the men's team race, we know Notre Dame has a deep group of finalists and they're going to score a lot of points on Sunday, so it's definitely going to be a very close race to the finish. For our women, we're certainly making strong progress and the goal of finishing in the upper half of the conference is well within our reach." Leading the way for the Cardinal were event champions Arthur Turland in the discus, Andre Black in the long jump, Cory Thorne in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Tone Belt in the high jump and Wesley Korir in the 10,000-meter run. Turland, a senior from Kincardine, Ont., became a four-time BIG EAST champion and won his first discus title with a throw of 181 feet, 7 inches.
The U of L men's team's second title of the day came from Black, a sophomore from Mobile, Ala., with his jump of 25-07.50 to win his first BIG EAST long jump title and his fourth conference title overall. Not to be outdone, Thorne, a sophomore from Portsmouth, N.H., added the Cards' first running title of the day in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 8 minutes, 55.25 seconds. Moments later, Belt, a sophomore from Berkeley Springs, W.Va., won his second straight high jump title and this sixth career BIG EAST title clearing a meet record height of 7-03.00. The Cardinal men returned to the track for their final win of the day in the final event of the day as Korir, a senior from Eldoret, Kenya, won his second career BIG EAST title with a school record shattering time of 29:06.83. He finished more than 33 seconds clear of the second place finisher and broke teammate Soimo Kiplagat's previous school record of 29:44.38 set earlier this season. On the women's side, ZeNai Savage, a junior from Indianapolis, Ind., won the Cards' only title of the day with a personal best mark of 48-06.75 to win the shot put title, her first career BIG EAST title. The Cardinal men and women also had five runner-up finishes on Saturday, led by junior Robbie Moore's school record setting performance in the decathlon. Moore, a native of Eminence, Ky., had personal best performances in three of five events on Saturday and six of 10 overall to score 6,649 points in the decathlon and shatter his own previous school record total of 6,436 set earlier this season at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville. Joining Moore with runner-up finishes for the Cardinal men was Steven Hnat (Floyds Knob, Ind.) in the shot put with a throw of 55-09.75, Belt in the long jump with a mark of 25-04.50 and senior Brandon Cook (Borden, Ind.) in the discus with a throw of 180-00. Adding a runner finish for the Cardinal women was freshman Andrea Sabbatine (Georgetown, Ky.) in the pole vault with a cleared height of 11-11.75. Joining Korir and Moore with school record performances on Saturday was a pair of women with strong performances in the preliminary rounds of track events. Leading the way was freshman Elisabeth Slettum, a native of Stavanger, Norway and the reigning BIG EAST indoor 200m champion, who set a school record in the outdoor 200m with a time of 23.65 seconds to advance to Sunday's final as the top qualifier in the event. Earlier in the day, Slettum set a new school record in the 100m dash with a time of 11.80 to advance to Sunday's final in that event as well. The third school record performance of the day for the Cardinal women came from freshman Theresa Lewis, a native of Randallstown, Md., who became the Cards' school record setting 25th NCAA Mideast Regional qualifier of the season with a time of 13.52 seconds in the 100m hurdles to advance to Sunday's final round as the No. 3 qualifier. The 25 regional qualifiers shatters last year's previous school record total of 17. The Cards had three other athletes advance through Saturday's prelims as freshman Chris Brautzsch (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) was the No. 4 qualifier in the 110m hurdles with a personal best time of 14.32 seconds, freshman Shaquan Brown (Paterson, N.J.) was the No. 8 qualifier in the men's 400m dash with a time of 48.02 seconds and sophomore Heather Trimiew (Chattanooga, Tenn.) was the No. 8 qualifier in the women's 400m hurdles with a time of 1:02.33. The final day of competition at the BIG EAST Championships will begin at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday. BIG EAST Outdoor Championships - Storrs, Conn. Day Two Results |
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