Bearcat Track Looks for State Supremacy

Bearcat Track Looks for State SupremacyBearcat Track Looks for State Supremacy

Feb. 6, 2006

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FOR STARTERS:

The University of Cincinnati indoor track and field team looks for state supremacy at the All-Ohio Championships on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Robert A. Malcolm Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Findlay.

BEARCAT BITES:

• UC enters its first season of competition in the BIG EAST Conference in 2006. The conference features 16 women's indoor track & field teams, constituting the largest league in the nation. The 2006 BIG EAST Championships will be held on Feb. 18-19 at the University of Akron's Athletics Fieldhouse.

• The Bearcats have qualified 11 athletes (in 18 events) for the 2006 BIG EAST Championships.

• Senior Shintara Carpenter (triple jump), junior Renee Hein (high jump), sophomore Brittany Klima (pole vault), and senior Ashley Wilhelm (pentathlon) are current indoor school record-holders.

• Head coach Jim Schnur is in his 22nd year at Cincinnati and his sixth as head women's coach.

LAST TIME OUT:

Ashley Wilhelm and Brittany Klima each posted top-five finishes as the UC indoor track and field team wrapped up competition at the Hoosier Relays on Saturday, Feb. 4, at Indiana University's Gladstein Fieldhouse. Team scores were not tabulated. Wilhelm finished fifth in the long jump with an 18' 8" leap after qualifying for the finals with a 19' 3/4" jump. She also posted a personal-best 8.84 in the prelims for the 60 meter hurdles. Klima, the Bearcat record holder in the pole vault finished in a fifth-place tie behind four unattached athletes. She cleared 11' 7-3/4" after winning the event at each of the first two meets of the season. Other top-10 finishes were produced by Erin Leeper, Jocelyn Gibson, Megan Knapp and Lisa Klotz. Leeper ran a career-best 57.27 in the 400 meter prelims. She followed that with a 57.29 in the finals to finish sixth. Gibson, who ran a season-best 2:16.71 in the prelims of the 800 meters, finished sixth with a 2:17.65 in the finals. Knapp finished seventh in the 3,000 meters with a 10:14.18 and Klotz set a personal record with a 45' 3" shot put while placing ninth.

POLE VAULT DOMINATION:

The Bearcats opened the 2006 with a dominating performance in the pole vault at the Bowling Green Quintangular on Jan. 20. Sophomore Brittany Klima won the event, tying teammate Tara Meier's school record (11' 11-3/4"). Meier finished second (11' 5-3/4"), Ashley Wilhelm was third (10' 11-3/4") and freshman Brittney Robinson finished fourth (10'). Klima followed up with another record-breaking performance at the Ohio State Invite, smashing her own mark by clearing 12' 6-1/4" on Jan. 28. She then finished tied for fifth, behind four unattached athletes, at the Hoosier Relays with an 11' 7-3/4" clearance.

KLIMA PICKING UP WHERE SHE LEFT OFF:

Brittany Klima set a school record in the pole vault during the 2005 outdoor season. In her first two meets of the 2006 indoor season, the sophomore picked right back up where she left off, matching teammate Tara Meier's school mark in the indoor vault with a clearance of 11' 11-3/4", winning the Bowling Green Quint. title. She bettered that mark with a 12' 6-1/4" clearance at the Ohio State Invite.

ALL-AROUND ASHLEY:

Senior Ashley Wilhelm started her 2006 season strong at the Bowling Green Quintangular, meeting BIG EAST Championship qualifying standards in four events. Wilhelm finished second in the long jump with a 19' 2-1/2" long jump while placing third in the pole vault with a 10' 11-3/4" clearance. She also ran a 9.01 in the 60-meter hurdles, placing fourth, and cleared 5' 3" in finishing fifth in the high jump.

KLOTZ OF DISTANCE:

Freshman Lisa Klotz finished third in the shot put at the Bowling Green Quintangular, qualifying for the BIG EAST Indoor Championships, with a 44' 10-3/4" toss. After losing school record-holder Jo Young to graduation after 2005, the Bearcats are turning to the Colerain graduate Klotz to boost the shot put event.

UP NEXT:

UC will head to Akron, Ohio, for its first-ever BIG EAST Indoor Championships, Saturday, Feb. 18-Sunday, Feb. 19.