Feb. 25, 2005

Houston, Texas -

ALL-CONFERENCE USA PERFORMANCES (Day One)
• Women's Distance Medley Relay - CHAMPIONS
(Jane Daniels, Angel Moore Liz Smith, Cassie Ficken)

• Tawana Norman, Women's Long Jump - Runner-Up


• Men's Distance Medley Relay - 3rd Place
(Alex Stewart, Quincy Smith, Verun Tahiliani, Russell Slade)


• LaMarcus Outing, Men's Long Jump - 3rd Place

The women's distance medley team earned the C-USA Championship, and several 49ers advanced to the finals of their respective events, putting Charlotte in good position heading into the final day of the Conference USA Indoor Track Championships at the University of Houston's Yeoman Fieldhouse. Six more school records fell, and there were three more NCAA provisional qualifications.

Charlotte's women's distance medley team earned the Conference USA Championship, clobbering the school record with a time of 11:43.96. The team, comprised of Jane Daniels, Angel Moore, Liz Smith and Cassie Ficken, bettered the previous Charlotte mark by nearly 24 seconds and was just two seconds off of the C-USA Championships record. Charlotte is only the third school in league history to win this event on the women's side.

The 10-point performance in Friday's final women's event put the Charlotte women within striking distance in fifth place overall.

It was an especially good day for Smith, who also advanced to the finals of the 800 meter run with a school-record time of 2:15.48. It was the second straight meet that Smith has lowered the school record in the event.

The men's distance medley relay team also earned All-Conference USA honors, finishing third with a time of 10:06.86. Alex Stewart, Quincy Smith, Verun Tahiliani and Russell Slade collectively scored six points in the day's final event, lifting the Charlotte men's team into a tie for fourth place overall.

Senior Derrick Johnson provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships once again, finishing with the league's top time in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash. Johnson clocked a 6.68, lowering his own school record by another two-hundredths of a second (as he did earlier this season). Quincy Smith (6.84) and James Hanna (6.91) also advanced to Saturday's eight-man final, assuring Charlotte of three scoring performances in the event.

Johnson also provisionally qualified for the NCAA's in the 200-meter dash, where he took second behind ECU's LaShawn Merritt in the preliminary round with a time of 21.43. That is just off his own school mark set last time out at the Virginia Tech Challenge. Benjamin McCallum also advanced in the event, with a time of 21.98.

Tawana Norman, who earlier this year set a school record in the long jump during her first meet as a 49er, shattered that record en route to All-Conference status with a runner-up finish. Her mark of 20 feet, 0.50 inches is a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and bettered her own Charlotte record by three-quarters of an inch. She has now extended the original 49er record in the event by an astounding 3.75 inches.

Norman, a graduate student who competed as an undergraduate at North Carolina A&T and was the MEAC long jump champion, briefly took the lead with her fifth jump of the day. But Houston's Jasmin Jackson regained the lead on her next jump to take the title.

Norman missed the finals of the 60-meter dash by the smallest of margins, six-thousandths of a second, but established a new school record in finishing ninth overall. Teammate Tempess Stark placed tenth.

LaMarcus Outing earned All-Conference honors, finishing third in the long jump with a distance of 23-feet, 6.75 inches. Montray Gilchrist and John Okonkwo were ninth and tenth in the event, respectively.

The Charlotte men earned points in the high jump, with two 49ers placing among the top eight. John Okonkwo was fifth, earning four team points by clearing 6-feet, 4-inches. Kevin Ryan, also competing in the heptathlon, placed sixth to earn three points, clearing 6'2". Sean Patterson nearly made it three Niners scoring in the event, missing out on the final scoring spot despite clearing the same height (took more attempts).

Entering tomorrow's second day of competition, senior Brad Bailey is fifth in the pentathlon with 2,763 points, while teammate Kevin Ryan is sixth with 2,722 points. Bailey won the shot put with a distance of 42-feet, 11.00-inches, and was fifth in the 60-meter dash and high jump. He placed eighth in the long jump. Ryan was third in the high jump, fourth in the shot, seventh in the long jump and eighth in the 60.

In the men's 60-high hurdles, Ryan Keziah (5th, 8.13), Derek Ross (6th, 8.14), and Montray Gilchrist (8th, 8.34) advanced to the eight-man finals tomorrow to assure Charlotte of more valuable points.

The Charlotte men's distance runners, led by Brad Herbster, showed their depth while scoring some valuable team points on the first day. In the 5,000 meter run, Matt Hipps was fourth, while Ken Simeone and Jamil Muhaimin were seventh and eighth, respectively. The trio totaled seven points in the event.

Tempess Stark was seventh and Shareese Woods fourth in the 200-meter dash prelims, advancing both to tomorrow's finals.

Carlitha Sturdivant advanced to tomorrow's 400-meter dash finals, clocking a 56.24 in the preliminaries.

Paris Smith advanced to tomorrow's 60-meter dash finals.

Tsehaye Dagnachew was tenth in the 5,000 meter run with one of the school's all-time top five times, while Amelia Slagle was 15th in the same event.