Sharonda Johnson extended her provisional qualifying mark in the triple jump. |
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Charlotte Sends Competitors to Pair of Last Chance Qualifying Meets
March 4, 2007
Blacksburg, Va. & South Bend, Ind. - Charlotte track stars ran at a pair of last chance meets with the hope of trimming times and lengthening distances to provisional marks in order to get into the NCAA Championships next weekend.
Charlotte sent sprinters to Virginia Tech and some distance racers to Notre Dame to compete this weekend.
At Virginia Tech, Sharonda Johnson did better her provisional status, extending her season-best and school-record triple jump by over a foot. She took her season-best 41' 10.75 inches and stretched it to 43' 3" to move up to 14th on the provisional qualifying list.
"Sharonda did a great job Saturday and definitely has further jumps in her as she enters the NCAA Championship," said Niners Coach Bob Olesen.
"She was very focused Saturday and has been patient and every bit the poised veteran in the preceeding weeks knowing she could achieve what was necessary and taking advantage of the training and facility to get it done when it absolutely had to be done."
On the men's side, sprinter Jason Moore ran a pair of provisional qualifying times of 6.24 in the 55m dash preliminaries and 6.23 seconds in the finals, but his previous best of 6.21 seconds will be his official posting time to try to make the National Championships. He won the 200m dash, but his 21.54 seconds time was not better than his previous 21.15 posted time.
"Jason is doing a fantastic job and steadily working his way up into the national level and stands an excellent chance of advancing to the outdoor national championship now that the outdoor season is upon us," said Olesen.
Sophomore Pat Springs had her second nd third-best long jumps of her career, finishing within centimeters of her best jump, ranking her in the top 40 nationally.
"Pat really stepped it up this season and not only set a lifetime best but showed great consistency with every meet that she fully contested the long jump being over 19' and all but one over 19'6," said Olesen.
"She has big goals for the outdoor season including breaking the oldest women's school record in the 100m hurdles, being a NCAA regional long jump finalist and national qualifier, and being a part of the 4x100m relay that returns all members from last year's national team."
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LaMarcus Outing equaled his season-best long jump result with a jump of 23' 2.75" or 7.08m leap.
Both Morris LeBlanc and Outing extended their triple jump distances, LeBlanc by over a foot and Outing by better than six inches to 47' 6.25" and 46' 9" respectively. LaBlanc's result was a career-best.
At Notre Dame, teammates Aaron Kauffman and Chase Eckard both trimmed their best 800m times of the season. Eckard lowered his time by over three seconds to break the 17-year old school record, and Kauffman was better by nearly a second.
Aja Jackson knocked off nearly five seconds from her best 2007 time in the 800m sprint to break that school record by nearly four seconds at 2:09.75.
"The 800m was a great event for us at Notre Dame with 2 school records and a personal best," said Olesen. "Chase, Aja and Aaron showed us they'll be ready to make a statement when we get to the outdoor championship phase."
Adu Dentamo was more than 20 seconds faster in the 3000m run, trimming his best time to 8:19.60 seconds.
"This was Adu's first indoor season as he redshirted his first year and he had a very good one setting up a strong foundation for an even better outdoor season than he had in 2006," said Olesen.
Tsehaye Dagnachew was able to run a career-best time of 9:59.49 in the 3000m, shaving four seconds off her best time of the season.
Senior Shareese Woods took the weekend off to prepare for the National Championships, for which she is automatically qualified in the 200m (third best time in the nation). She posted the 24th and 31st best times in the 60m and 400m respectively this season.
The NCAA Division I Indoor Championships will take place next week, with the finals to be contested on March 9-10 in Fayetteville, Ark. at the Tyson Center. Selection information will be released Monday, March 5.
