Junior Chase Eckard won the title in the mile at this weekend's Clemson Invitational |
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49ers Men and Women Finish Third and Fifth, Respectively, at Clemson Invitational
Jan. 20, 2008
Clemson, S.C. - With the addition of the 49er distance program, the Charlotte men's and women's indoor track and field teams posted third and fifth place finishes, respectively, at the Clemson Invitational this weekend. The Charlotte men, posting a combined 16-event score of 83, finished behind Clemson (133.5) and Georgia (102) in the 11-team field, while the women finished at 62 closely behind Clemson (104.5), Alabama (69), Florida State (67) and Georgia Tech (63) in the 18-team field.
"For the sake of mid-season development and evaluation, we did not strategically enter our athletes in the meet's events as aggressively as we will for the conference championship," head coach Bob Olesen said. "Nonetheless, we did leave a number of points on the track that we should have secured for our team total. Even so, the men's and women's teams finished very respectably amidst a number of ACC and SEC programs and were the top finishing teams not from one of those conferences."
"As tight as the women's scoring was, we were literally seconds away from third or fourth, or a one jump away from finishing second rather than fifth."
Kicking off their season, the distance team joined the usual 49er suspects, with junior Chase Eckard leading the way with a personal best, winning the mile in 4:14.64, ranking him fifth all time for Charlotte. Junior Ryan Jank completed a tough double, finishing third in the 3,000m with a personal best of 8:26.34, ranking him sixth all-time for the 49ers, and fourth in the mile at a near personal best of 4:16.89.
On the women's side, junior Aja Jackson and freshman Amanda Goetschius also tallied significant performances, as Jackson finished second to Alabama All-American distance runner Julia Hicks in the mile with a 5:06.04. Goetschius successfully completed her first collegiate track race in the 3,000m with a 10:12.48 in sixth place, also ranking her sixth place all-time for the program.
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Both the men's and women's distance medley relays (1,200m, 400m, 800m, mile) posted strong performances, finishing first and second, respectively, with solid times that will lead the Atlantic 10 coming out of the weekend. The men's squad, composed of Eckard, sophomore Jonathan Galberth, freshman Dakota Lowery and sophomore Adu Dentamo ran a 10:13.78, ranking sixth all-time, while the women crossed the line in 12:06.42, ranking the team of Jackson, freshman Shanice Jones, freshman Keara Thomas and Goetschius third on the all-time list.
In the sprints, senior Lajarsha Moses and junior Lamarra Currie continue to impress with second and fourth-place finishes, respectively, in the 60m dash. Their weekend's best times of 7.48 and 7.49, respectively, came in the preliminary round and are lifetime bests at the 60m distance. In the 200m, the duo also finished second and fourth, but reversed positions with Currie in the two-spot. In the 400m, freshmen Ebonie Cunningham and Kortnie Coleman finished fifth (57.42) and sixth (57.71), respectively, allowing Coleman's personal best to rank her seventh all-time.
On the men's sprint side, senior Jason Moore finished third in the 200m at 22.00 and fifth in the 60m at 6.86, while freshman Darius Law ended up seventh in the 400m at 49.34.
In field action, junior Jarryd Novotni extended his personal best in the weight throw to 50'2.5" (15.30m) for fifth place, maintaining his second all-time ranking. Last year's North Carolina outdoor 4A state high jump champion Jake Wainwright cleared his first collegiate crossbar at 6'4.25" (1.94m), allowing him to finish seventh in the event and rank sixth all-time. Sophomore pole vaulter Sam Hodapp tied his personal best of 14'7.25" (4.45m), which he established last weekend at Virginia Tech, finishing seventh. In the long jump, senior LaMarcus Outing and junior Tavaris Leak finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at 22'10" (6.96m) and 22'9.25" (6.94m).
In the women's triple jump, sophomore Danielle Brown finished sixth at 38'4.75" (11.70m), only two centimeters from her personal best in the event.
The 49ers return to action next week at the Penn State National Open, where they will encounter conference competition.
"Due to competitive entry limitations, we'll have a slightly smaller group traveling this week with those not competing training hard here at home," Olesen said. "It's clearly apparent upon reviewing the weekend's results that the conference in general is stronger and more competitive than last year, so we've got a lot of work to do in the four weeks leading up to the A-10 Championships. We are looking forward to great opportunities to perform at Penn State."
