JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Elon came away from the 2005 Southern Conference Women's Indoor Track Championship with a sixth-place finish and six new school records Saturday at the Memorial Center.
The Phoenix (27.33 points) finished behind Appalachian State (161.83), Western Carolina (152.5), Georgia Southern (125.5.), Chattanooga (75.5) and host East Tennessee State (54) in the 11-team meet. College of Charleston (23.33), Furman (23), Davidson (9), The Citadel (6) and UNC Greensboro (4) rounded out the field.
Elon sophomore sensation Jessica Clendenning leapt to a runner-up finish in the pole vault, repeating her all-conference status from last season. Clendenning vaulted 3.35 meters (10-11.75), narrowly missing her 3.40-meter school-record performance from earlier this month. Susan Shore finished in a tie for eighth place in the same event for the Phoenix, vaulting 2.90 meters (9-06.25.33).
In other top Phoenix showings, Dominique Price sprinted to a personal-best time of 8.05 seconds in the 60-meter dash to finish fourth in her heat and improve upon Alice Turner's school-record time of 8.09 seconds, set last season. Danielle Simmons and Brittany Dawson both finished the event in a personal-best 8.30 seconds.
Turner finished fourth in the finals of the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 57.85 seconds after running a time of 59.29 seconds in the preliminaries. Both times put her ahead of her old school record of 1:00.87, set earlier this month. Rochelle Reid raced to a time of 1:03.57 in the same event, finishing fourth in her heat.
In the 60-meter hurdles, Price was clocked at 9.16 seconds in the finals on her way to a fourth-place finish. Teammate Brittany Boda was close behind with a personal best at 9.19 seconds, placing fifth. To qualify for the finals, Price sprinted to a school-record time of 8.95 seconds to end up second in her heat. That time surpassed her old mark of 9.04 seconds, set earlier this month.
The Phoenix 4x400-meter relay unit – Reid, Boda, Morgan Zech and Turner – raced to a fourth-place finish, scurrying to a new program-best time of 4:00.51. The previous school record of 4:07.88 was established last year.
The Elon trio of Boda (school-record 5.06 meters/16-07.25), Lindsay Gonzalez (4.94 meters/16-02.50) and Brittany Dawson (4.87 meters/15-11.75) finished third-fourth-fifth in their flight of the long jump. Those three performances were all personal bests and all three topped the old school record of 4.74 meters, shared by three different athletes.
Angela Carlberg finished third in her flight of the shot put with a school-record distance of 11.29 meters (37-00.50), bettering her own program best of 11.18 meters of last season.
Zech sprinted to second place in her heat of the 200-meter dash with a personal-best time of 26.54 seconds, just missing Turner's school milestone of 26.33 seconds from last year. Jessica Hayden (26.83 seconds) and Simmons (27.89 seconds) also finished the 200-meter dash with new personal records.
In the 800-meter run, Jenny Pearce (2:23.51) broke her own personal record by four full seconds and Grace Ilevbare (2:34.42) improved as well. Pearce, only a freshman, finished less than three seconds away from breaking Alana Black's school record of 2:20.92.
Tara Mulcahy (5:32.09) and Amy Sulser (5:35.63) finished fifth and sixth in their 15-runner section of the one-mile run. Both Mulcahy and Sulser made a vast improvement on their previous season bests. Meanwhile, Kelly Chencharik (12:03.58) and Meghan Atkinson (12:05.28) both improved upon their times in the 3000-meter run.
– ELON –
