TicketsMarch 20, 2009
IN THE STARTING BLOCKS:
The University of Cincinnati opens its 2009 outdoor track and field season season on Saturday, March 21, when it hosts the Early Bird Relays at Gettler Stadium. The Bearcats welcome Robert Morris, Dayton, Morehead State, Mount St. Joseph's, Xavier, IPFW, Northern Kentucky, and the University of Indianapolis to Clifton to compete in the season-opening event. Parking for spectators is $5 in the Calhoun Street Parking Garage.
BEARCAT BITES:
· Jasmine Cotten had a breakthrough 2009 indoor season and looks to carry the momentum from the indoor season to the outdoor season. Cotten qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the pentathlon and finished 14th at the NCAA's March 13 in College Station, Texas.
· After claiming a BIG EAST title in the high jump last season, Brandon Fitch qualified for the NCAA's, but was unable to make it out of the preliminaries. The BIG EAST champion finished his sophomore season with three event crowns and a third-place finish at the regional championships.
· UC's Antione Drakeford won two BIG EAST titles (400, 4x100) last season en route to capturing BIG EAST Most Outstanding Male Track Performer accolades.
· The UC women set six school records last season, while the men posted three.
· In 2008, Brian Zimmerman broke the school's longest-standing record - Bob Brickweg's javelin mark, set in 1967 - with a 204' 0" toss at the All-Ohio Championships.
· The Bearcat men finished fourth at the 2008 BIG EAST Championships, the highest finish in the three-year affiliation with the 16-team league. The women placed 10th.
LAST TIME OUT:
Antione Drakeford was named the BIG EAST Most Outstanding Track Performer in leading the University of Cincinnati men's team to a fourth-place finish at the 2008 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships on May 4, 2008. The women placed 10th.
Drakeford won the 400 meter dash in a school-record time of 46.29, breaking Jeff Walker's 1979 record of 46.42. He ran a leg for the champion 4x100 relay team (41.48) and the fifth-place 4x400 relay team (3:14.54) and finished seventh in the 200 meter dash (21.61) to become the first UC male to earn the most outstanding performer award since the Bearcats joined the BIG EAST in 2006.
Brandon Fitch cleared 6' 9-1/2" to win the high jump title and Ian Jarman was second in the hammer throw with a 188' 11" toss. Dayo Igeleke finished third in the 100 meters and fifth in the 200 meters for the second straight season.
For the women, Lilian Jelimo placed third in the 10,000 meters with a school-record 35:22.35. She topped Ruth Limo's 2003 school record by over 37 seconds. Chelsea Gerken broke all-American Ashley Wilhelm's UC javelin record with a 141' 8" throw, finishing fifth. She also finished sixth in the heptathlon with 4712 points. Brittany Klima, the 2007 BIG EAST champ, placed fifth in the pole vault (12' 5-1/2").
UP NEXT:
The Bearcats will send their decathlon and heptathlon athletes to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the Alabama Relays, March 26-27, while the remainder of the team will stay at home for the second of three straight home meets when UC hosts the Oliver Nikoloff Invitational on Saturday, March 28.