TicketsApril 17, 2010
ATHENS, Ohio - The University of Cincinnati men's track & field team edged Kent State University by four points, and UC's women's track & field squad moved up five spots after Day 1 to finish in third place overall at the 2010 All-Ohio Championships.
The men's team assembled 154 points, edging out the Golden Flashes by four points, while the women's team scored 91 points on Saturday to finish in third with 97 total points.
After the opening day of competition, the men's team was in first place with 42 points, while the women's team was in eighth place with six points. On Friday, the men's team used a 1-3-5 finish by sophomore Eric Finan, freshman Oliver Book and sophomore Ricky Lupp in the 5,000m to pick up 22 points for UC. In addition to that performance, sophomore Brian Zimmerman continued his dominance in the javelin with a first-place toss of 218' 1-1/4", besting the field by 10 feet.
In the field on Friday, sophomores Tommy Marks and Ben Hall placed third and eighth, respectively, with clearances of 15' 9" and 14' 3-1/4" in the pole vault. Fellow sophomore Zach Schmidt placed fourth in the long jump with a PR of 21' 5".
Finan became a double-event winner on Saturday with a triumph in the 1,500m, timing out at 3:58.67.
While Finan netted 20 points for UC in his two events, the men's throwers collected a slew of points for UC. The trio of junior Troy Cooper, junior Chris Littleton, and sophomore Jake Haseman all placed in the shot put, with Cooper leading the way with a PR toss of 171', which moved him into third place on UC's all-time list. Littleton also recorded a PR on his way to placing sixth, while Haseman finished seventh.
Littleton added another PR in the shot put with a toss of 56' 8", moving him into third on UC's all-time list, while Cooper, UC's current record-holder in the event, continued to excel in his specialty event with a second-place mark of 57' 1-3/4".
In some of the other field events for the men, senior Brandon Fitch and junior Mike Foley continued UC's trend of multi-place finishers in events with a 2-5 finish in the high jump.
On the track, junior Mario Cannon stepped up in the 110m hurdles with a fourth-place time of 14.72, while senior Antione Drakeford continued his progression in the 400m. Drakeford clocked in at 46.94, a season-best time, to win the one-lap event, freshman Ethan Freet placed third in 400 hurdles at 55.42, and senior Rick King finished fifth in a season-best time of 9:22.96 in the 3,000m steeplechase.
Finally on the men's side, sophomore Michael Rutherford, junior Jason Berling, and senior Jon McClelland all placed in the Top 5 of the 800m with Rutherford winning the race in a time of 1:52.39.
The women's team boasted five winning marks, with junior Natasha Burse having a hand in three of the five. Burse first flew by the field in the 100m to win in a time of 7.86, before winning the 200m in a time of 24.34. Finally, Burse was part of the 4x100 relay squad that defeated the field with a time of 47.17.
Sophomore Michelle Eby was the other lone winner with a clearance of 12' 7-1/2" in the pole vault, while the other UC women's victory came in the 4x400 relay. The quartet of sophomore Kathy Klump, senior Ashley Arnold, sophomore Jenna Heaton, and sophomore Aricka Rhodes bested their competitors by nearly five seconds and topped their season-best mark by nearly four seconds. In addition to running the anchor leg of the 4x400, Rhodes also finished second in the 400m.
Klump and Heaton also placed in more than one event when they moved up to the 800 meters and placed third and fifth, respectively, with times of 2:11.52 and 2:12.17.
In other track events, senior Lilian Jelimo clocked in at 10:50.74 to finish third in the 3,000m steeplechase, while sophomores Brianna Patton and Hauna Dawkins placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 100m hurdles. Seniors Tamara Masters and Jocelyn McCauley rounded out the dual-place finishers with a fifth- and eighth-place showing in the 10,000m, while Jessica Cobb rounded out the field scoring with an eighth-place throw of 112' 6".
In the multi-events, senior Boudine Bouma collected four points for the women's team in heptathlon, while junior Brandon Smith placed sixth in the decathlon.
Both the men's and women's teams will be back in action on Saturday, April 24, at the RedHawk Invitational in Oxford, Ohio. Next weekend's RedHawk Invitational will be the final meet before the Bearcats host the 2010 BIG EAST Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Gettler Stadium, April 29 - May 1.