SoCon Outdoor Championships
 
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ELON, N.C. – With six outdoor meets under their cleats this season, the Elon track and field team is ready for its eighth appearance in the Southern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The 2012 SoCon Championships are set for Saturday, April 21 – Sunday, April 22, at the Catamount Athletic Complex in Cullowhee, N.C.
 
Elon earned a program-best finish of third at the 2011 championships with a point total of 131. The Phoenix left Birmingham, Ala., with two titles (triple jump and 4x400-meter relay), while head coach Mark Elliston was named the Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year for the second straight year. Elon also turned in a total of 26 all-conference performances at last year’s championships.
 
The maroon and gold have made 17 additions to the program’s all-time performance list in the team’s six meets this season, including six new school records in the 100m, 200m, 5,000m, 4x100m, javelin and heptathlon.
 
Bria Bell, Veronica Luedke and Amy Salek are ready to defend their title in the 4x400m as all three of them return for this year’s race. Along with newcomer Louise Prevoteau, the team has recorded the third-fastest time in the conference this season with a 3:46.11.
 
The 4x100-meter relay team, made up of Bell, Luedke, Salek and Dana Cataldo, set the school record last weekend with a 46.55, which ranks as the fourth best time in the conference. The Phoenix placed third last year in the race with a team that included Luedke and Cataldo.
 
Salek has placed in the top five in every 400m she’s run this season and finished second in the event in 2011. The senior’s season-best time of 54.70 ranks second in the conference. Salek has received three honors from the conference office this season as she was named the SoCon Track Athlete of the Week and the SoCon Student Athlete of the Week on March 14 and the SoCon Track Athlete of the Month for March.
 
In the other sprint events, Bell broke her Elon record in the 200-meter dash last week with a time of 24.60, which ranks her third on the conference performance list. The sophomore claimed fifth in the event last season. Bell is also expected to make an impact in the 400m as her time of 56.48 is the fifth best this season in the SoCon. Cataldo is Elon’s strongest runner in the 100m and is in the top-10 in the league with her school-record time of 12.29. In the 400-meter hurdles, Luedke ranks fourth with a time of 1:03.02. The Nanaimo, British Columbia, native finished second in the event last year as a freshman.
 
Allyson Oram set a school record in the 5,000-meter run in March with a time of 17:04.29 and ranks sixth in the conference. Oram and Morgan Denecke both finished in the top-10 in the event last season, while Denecke also finished sixth in the 10,000-meter run. Emily Tryon is the program’s record holder in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and claimed second at last year’s championships. She ranks fifth in the conference this season with a time of 11:02.76, while Erin Macbeth sits 10^th with a 12:24.41.
 
Prevoteau won the pentathlon at the indoor championships in February and has claimed one heptathlon title this season with an Elon record of 4,854 points. Her point total ranks as the best in the conference and is over 400 points better than the second-ranked athlete. The freshman also is second in the league in the long jump (18’5”) and fifth in the high jump (5’4.25”).
 
Freshman Suzanne Martin set the Elon record in the javelin at the Coastal Carolina Invitational with a heave of 135’ and is third in the conference standings. Janelle McNeil’s best leap of the season (36’11.5”) in the triple jump is the fourth-best in the conference. At last year’s championships, Alyssa Girvin took sixth in the discus and currently ranks seventh with a distance of 129’4”. Charlise Morgan is second on Elon’s all-time performance list in the shot put and took sixth last year in the event. Her mark of 44’6.75” is fourth in the SoCon this season.
 
The championships will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning with the men’s decathlon, followed by the women’s heptathlon at 9:15 a.m. The awards ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Sunday at 5:50 p.m. The championships are free to the public.