TicketsApril 10, 2010
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Cincinnati men's and women's track & field teams combined to collect nine Top 5 finishes, including two school-record performances by the women's 4x800 team and the men's 4x400 team, at the 2010 Sea Ray Relays held at Tom Black Track on the University of Tennessee campus.
The highlight of the meet came courtesy of a pair of freshmen, Maurice Norman and Ethan Freet, coupled with junior Chase Van Cura and senior Antione Drakeford, who came together to break a school-record that has stood for 25 years. The four Bearcat runners placed fourth with a time of 3:09.77, breaking the previous school record of 3:09.93 set in 1985.
While the men's 4x400 relay team set a new school record that had previously stood for a quarter of a century, the quartet of sophomores Kathy Klump, Jenny Harsh, Jenna Heaton, and senior Megan McAuley shattered their own school record in the 4x800m relay. The group clocked in with a second-place time of 8:54.30, marking the first sub nine-minute time in school history and breaking the previous school record by seven seconds.
Cincinnati competed on just Friday and Saturday of the four-day event registering several solid performances on both days.
On Friday, Eric Finan continued his terrific outdoor season with a second-place showing in the 5,000m. Finan clocked in at 14:17.29, which was the fastest time among all collegiate runners by 10-plus seconds, but second overall behind Anthony Famiglietti, who is sponsored by Saucony.
Drakeford made his return to the track last week at the Oliver Nikoloff Invitational competing in the 100 meters and 4x100 relay, but on Friday, Drakeford made his return to his specialty event, the 400 meters. In his comeback in the one-lap event, Drakeford finished third overall with a time of 47.56.
Klump, who was part of the school-record breaking 4x800m relay team on Saturday, got her meet off to a great start on Friday in the 800m. Klump crossed the line in a season-best time of 2:10.07 placing her fourth overall and just 0.13 seconds off her school-record time set last season.
In other action on Friday, juniors Troy Cooper and Chris Littleton both collected a pair of Top 10 finishes in both the open discus and the shot put. Cooper finished in fifth in both events with a throw of 157' 8" in the discus and a toss of 57' in the shot put. Littleton followed with a sixth-place throw of 157' 1" in the discus and a ninth-place throw of 53' 4-1/4" in the shot put.
Freshman Bridget McNeill finished ninth in the discus (135' 11"), junior Natasha Burse posted an eighth-place showing in the 200m (24.30), and sophomore Michael Rutherford also posted an eighth-place finish in the 800m (1:51.17). Sophomore Brianna Patton won the fifth heat of the 100m hurdles in a season-best time of 14.52, while sophomore David Barry just missed out on moving into UC's all-time Top 5 in the 10,000m with a time of 31:00.29.
Not as many Bearcat athletes competed on Saturday, but UC still made an impression with top showings in the men's high jump, the men's javelin, and the men's 4x400 relay.
Senior Brandon Fitch matched a season-best mark in the high jump clearing 6' 10-3/4", which placed third, while sophomore Brian Zimmerman placed seventh with a throw of 215' 5" in the men's javelin.
The men's 4x100 team of sophomore Anthony Chandler, Drakeford, Van Cura, and senior Dayo Igeleke clocked a season-best time of 41.2 to place fifth. The season-best time was nearly a 0.7 second improvement from its previous top time this season.
Both teams return to action April 16-17 when they travel to Athens, Ohio, for the All-Ohio Championships.