Shareese Woods was one of four individual champions for the 49er women |
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Women Third, Men Fourth at Final C-USA Championships
May 14, 2005
Houston, Texas -
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(must place in the top 3 of an event; see page 4 of the attached PDF for a full list of 49er scoring performances)
• Tsehaye Dagnachew, women's 3,000-meter steeplechase - CHAMPION
• Cassie Ficken, women's 1,500-meter run - CHAMPION
• Cassie Ficken, women's 5,000-meter run - CHAMPION
• Shareese Woods, women's 200-meter dash - CHAMPION
• Tsehaye Dagnachew, women's 5,000-meter run - Runner-Up
• Shareese Woods, women's 400-meter dash - Runner-Up
• Ed Schlichter, men's 10,000-meter run - Runner-Up
• Brad Bailey, men's Decathlon - Runner-Up
• Russell Slade, men's 1,500-meter run - Runner-Up
• Derrick Johnson, men's 100-meter dash - Third Place
• Derrick Johnson, men's 200-meter dash - Third Place
• Men's 4x400-meter relay - Third Place
• Women's 4x400-meter relay - Third Place
The Charlotte 49er women's team improved eight spots on the final day, adding three more event champions to finish third overall at the 2005 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The Charlotte men's team finished in fourth place overall at the three-day meet, which concluded Saturday afternoon.
Cassie Ficken (1,500 and 5,000-meter runs) and Shareese Woods (200 meter dash) each earned Conference USA titles on the final day to lead the Charlotte women into third place in the team standings. The 49ers entered the day in 11th place after two scoring performances on Friday night.
Along with Woods and Ficken, Tsehaye Dagnachew had captured the title in the 3,000-meter dash on Friday night, giving the Niner women an unprecedented four titles at their final C-USA Championship meet. The Charlotte women had only five C-USA Outdoor Champions in the previous nine years as a member of the league.
On the men's side, senior Derrick Johnson captured three All-Conference awards to lead the 49ers to a fourth place finish in the team competition.
The third-place performance was the best-ever showing for the Charlotte women's team at the outdoor championships. The Niner women had never finished better than sixth place, which they achieved in 2003.
The Niner men also made school history, tying their best-ever team finish at the C-USA Championships. The 49er men's team also finished fourth at the 2001 and 2002 Outdoor Championships.
Ficken, who was the C-USA Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, picked up a Conference championship in the 5,000-meter run. She finished in a time of 16:50.42, good for another NCAA Regional qualification.
Tsehaye Dagnachew, the 3,000 steeplechase titlist on Saturday, finished second in the 5,000 to earn another all-conference award. Jane Daniels was eighth to give the 49ers three scorers in the race.
Ficken came back to win a second title in the 1,500-meter run, breaking her own school record by more than two seconds with a time of 4:26.19. That qualifies her for the NCAA East Regional in that event.
Ficken adds this pair of individual titles to her growing pile of awards, which includes two individual and one relay championship at the Indoor Championships.
Woods, a sophomore from Fort Lee, Va., took the 200-meter dash championship and once again lowered her own school record. After running a 23.50 in the prelims on Friday night, she lowered that further with a 23.45 in the finals to once again qualify for the NCAA East Regional Championships.
Woods wasn't done, and picked up another All-Conference USA award with second place finish in the 400-meter dash finals. She clocked in at 52.47, just 0.36 off the race winning time, again breaking her own school record in a Regional-qualifying time.
Woods picked up her third award as a member of the women's 4x400-meter relay. The team of Carlitha Sturdivant, Angel Moore, Tina Horne and Woods earned All-Conference honors with a third-place showing. They clocked a Regional-qualifying time of 3:38.60.
Johnson earned two All-Conference USA awards with third-place finishes in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. In the 100, "DJ" was clocked in a NCAA Regional-qualifying time of 10.50, and he posted a 20.75 mark in heavy 200-meter competition. The top three runners in the race each broke the previous stadium record, while the top seven all had Regional qualifying times.
Quincy Smith was seventh in the 100-dash to give Charlotte additional points in that event.
Johnson earned his third All-Conference honor as a member of the Charlotte men's 4x400-meter relay along with Quincy Smith, James Bacon and Jason Moore. The team earned All-Conference honors with a third-place finish.
Johnson also ran on the men's 4x100-relay, along with Quincy Smith, Benjamin McCallum and Jason Moore. They finished just outside the awards with a fourth-place showing.
Russell Slade earned All-Conference honors with a runner-up finish in the men's 1,500-meter dash. He finished in 3:51.42, just off his personal best set earlier this season.
In the men's 400-meter dash, James Bacon scored with a sixth-place finish. He clocked in at 47.67, just off his personal best set back in 2003.
Ryan Jank and Ed Schlichter finished back-to-back in the men's 5,000-meter run to give the 49er men valuable points. The duo finished sixth and seventh, respectively, to tally five points for Charlotte.
Montray Gilchrist was fifth in the finals of the 110-meter high hurdles to score four points, while Paris Smith finished seventh in the women's 100 hurdles.
Eli Sunquist was fifth in the men's triple jump, while LaMarcus Outing also scored with a seventh-place finish.
Tempess Stark finished eighth in the 100-meter dash finals, and was tenth in the women's triple jump.
On Friday night, Ed Schlichter posted a runner-up finish in the men's 10,000-meter run, while Dagnachew took her 3,000-steeplechase title in school-record and NCAA-qualifying time.
Brad Bailey wrapped up an all-conference and school record performance in the decathlon on Friday night as well.
Also on Friday, Alex Stewart scored with a eighth-place finish in the men's 3,000-steeplechase, while LaMarcus Outing was seventh in the long jump. Adrienne Barnette finished just outside the all-conference honors with a fourth-place showing in the high jump.
The meet was the last for the 49ers as members of Conference USA. Charlotte joins the Atlantic 10 Conference beginning next year. Overall, Charlotte has had ten Conference USA outdoor women's champions in as many years in the league, while the 49er men totaled nine.
See page four of the attached PDF document for a full list of Charlotte's scoring performances at the 2005 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
WOMEN'S FINAL TEAM STANDINGS PLACE, SCHOOL, SCORE 1 Houston 137 2 Southern Miss 116.50 3 Charlotte 75 4 USF 74.50 5 Tulane 63 6 TCU 58 7 Cincinnati 57 8 UAB 54 8 East Carolina 54 10 Marquette 53 11 Memphis 31 12 Louisville 24 13 DePaul 22
MEN'S FINAL TEAM STANDINGS PLACE SCHOOL SCORE 1 Houston 201 2 TCU 105 3 Cincinnati 90 4 Charlotte 76 5 USF 70.50 6 Marquette 70 7 East Carolina 60 8 Southern Miss 46 9 Louisville 40 10 Memphis 29.50 11 DePaul 24 12 Tulane 6
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