Shareese Woods was a dual qualifier for the NCAA Championships. |
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Woods, Patterson Qualify for NCAA Nationals; Others Await Word
May 27, 2006
Greensboro, N.C. - The Charlotte 49ers track & field teams had a banner day at the NCAA East Region Championships hosted by North Carolina A&T on Saturday, and could have a school-record total for NCAA National Championship qualifications when all is said and done early next week.
Junior All-American Shareese Woods was a two-time NCAA qualifier, punching her ticket individually in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, and junior Courtney Patterson joined her with a qualification in the 100.
Four other individuals and two relay teams posted top-11 finishes on Saturday, joining three individuals from Friday night to ensure that Charlotte will have a strong number of student-athletes entered into the pool of candidates for at-large bids to the NCAA Championships.
In the team competition, Charlotte's women finished eighth overall with a score of 26 points. Charlotte was the only school from outside the "power" conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big East) to finish in the top 10.
"It went really well. The women's team finish was awesome ... even beyond our expectations," said head coach Robert Olesen. "Shareese Woods ran what is an international caliber time really in the 200-dash. We think the women's 4x100 relay can get through to nationals. Tsehaye Dagnachew in the steeplechase is looking good, and we're hopeful for Cassie Ficken probably in the 5K as well."
"As was stated at the 49ers sports banquet a few weeks ago it has been a year of firsts. This weekend saw our first top 10 regional finish and what will likely be our first ever relay team at nationals. While it doesn't appear that any of the men's squad will advance this time around, we still should have a women's team and overall program record six athletes at the nationals in Sacremento.
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"Coming into this season we expected our strongest women's Regional finish ever, but with so many juniors on the roster were looking to next year for the top 10 or higher finish. The ladies did a fantastic job of bringing us a taste of the top 10 ... leaving us hungry for more next year in Gainesville. Special credit is due to the sprinters and associate head coach Tim Hall for amassing the majority of the team points."
Declarations for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be made early in the coming week, and Charlotte competitors should know the fate of their national hopes probably on Monday or Tuesday. The Championships will be hosted for the second year in a row by Sacramento State University at the A.G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif., June 7-10.
WOMEN'S RECAP
South Carolina won the women's competition with 79.5 points, followed by Miami (71), Georgia (50.5), North Carolina (49), Florida State (44), Florida (42.5), Penn State (36) and Charlotte.
The 49ers women finished ahead of at least 44 other schools that scored points, including top-15 finishers (in order) Georiga Tech, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Cornell, Hampton, NC State, Maryland and Virginia (tied).
Shareese Woods earned All-Region honors after finishing second in the 200-meter dash, earning the 49ers eight team points and automatically advancing her to the NCAA National Championships.
She would have shattered the school record with a time of 22.70, but the time was wind-aided and will not count towards the 49ers' recordbooks. It was, however, the fastest wind-aided time in Charlotte history and the first-ever performance of any kind under the 23-second mark.
Still, Woods is headed to the NCAA Championships for the third time in a row. She was at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships, narrowly missing out on the finals of the 200, and earned All-America honors this indoor season in the 400 by finishing 11th in the nation.
"I've said this before but I'll just keep saying it: Shareese is laying down incredibly fast times," said Olesen. "Even though it had a tailwind over the allowable for record purposes, 22.70 is just crazy fast!"
Both Woods and Courtney Patterson advanced to the NCAA Championships in the 100-meter dash, posting third- and fourth-place finishes respectively on Saturday at the Regional. Woods ran a wind-aided 11.26 in the finals to finish third overall, while Patterson ran a wind-aided 11.30 for fourth place. Both of those times are the fastest-ever wind-aided 100 times in Charlotte history and would have broken the school record if not for the high winds.
Woods (15 points) and Patterson (6) each contributed heavily to Charlotte's school-record team points total at the meet.
"We always knew Shareese could fly around the track and assumed she would go fast on a straightaway too, but we're just now finding out how fast that is. It can get faster," said coach Olesen.
"We're very excited and proud of Courtney's progress this year. It's amazing how quickly she has come in as a new transfer, assimilated the training and become one of the premier athletes in the history of the 49er program."
Tsehaye Dagnachew added three points to that total, missing out on an automatic qualification in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by under three seconds. Dagnachew was the top junior finisher in the race, in sixth place overall with a time of 10:24.39. She too will join the pool of at-large candidates for national consideration.
"Tsehaye ran a good race in very competitive field for sixth place. Our region is extremely deep in this event so even though she wasn't in the top five for automatic qualifcation, she kept her head and finshed strong in the first at-large position from the East in great shape for an at large bid."
The women's 4x100-meter relay team of Pat Springs, Shareese Woods, Lamarra Currie and Courtney Patterson was fifth overall and could advance to the NCAA Championships with that performance. After running a school-record time in Friday's preliminary round, the 49ers ran 44.90 in Saturday's finals. The team will be entered into the at-large pool for consideration based on Friday's school-record time of 44.46.
In relay events, only the top three teams from each Region automatically advance to nationals. For individual events, the top five advance automatically.
"Expectations were high for the women's sprint relay this weekend. The individual members have been running very fast and we just knew the relay should be ready to explode. They did just that dropping the school record by eight-tenths, finally executing the relay exchange handoffs efficiently enough to result in an amazing regional finish."
In the women's triple jump, Sharonda Johnson finished 11th overall in the East and will have her season-best distance considered in the at-large pool of candidates for a berth to nationals.
On Saturday, she jumped 42 feet, 7 inches in flight three on her third and final jump of the afternoon. Johnson edged ahead of Tahari James of Boston University (also 42-7) for 11th place, on the basis of a better second distance.
"Sharonda continues to amaze. She records near personal best performances only two months after her first meet back from double knee surgery in an event that is probably about the toughest on that particular joint of any in the sport. We're afraid she will fall victim to the complexity of the advancement procedure from region to nationals. Again we see the depth of the East Region that put her 11th here when in two of the other three regions she would have been a top-five automatic qualifier to nationals. The midwest region was very unusual in that 5 of the top 7 jumpers didn't finish in the top 5 automatic spots resulting in the at-large pool being flooded with high quality candidates. That bumped Sharonda far enough down the at-large bid list that advancement is doubtful at this time."
The women's 4x400-meter relay team of Angel Moore, Tina Horne, Shareese Woods, and Aja Jackson were barely edged out for 10th place and consideration for an at-large spot. The top three relays are automatically advanced, while spots 4-10 are entered to the at-large pool.
Charlotte's team finished 11th in 3:39.359 seconds on Saturday, missing out on 10th place by just six one-thousandths of a second to Western Carolina (3:39.353). The 49ers' time on Saturday was the second-fastest in school history and a season best.
"Another relay that was ready for a big day, the 4x400, got it done. Each member had personal best split times to put together the No. 2 all-time performance in school history. Angel Moore and Tina Horne did a great job after having to wait through two long days of competition and couldn't wait to get on the track. Aja Jackson did very well after having an 800 prelim the previous day and Shareese Woods continued to impress having already run six races in two days, which bodes well for nationals where she'll likely have eight races in four days.
"Shareese blazed a 52.2 split handing off to anchor Aja, who fought hard at the finish line to a dramatic near dead heat photo finish. It was arguably the most exciting finish of the day and earned a couple of jumbo-tron slow motion replays."
On Friday night at this same event, senior Cassie Ficken was 10th in the East in the 5,000-meter run, clocking in at 16:27.72.
The time could be good enough to gain entry to the National Championships as it was the 14th-fastest around the nation on Friday. Similar to her situation last spring, Ficken did not auto-qualify in a top-heavy East Regional, but posted a time that was among the fastest in the nation. By comparison, Cassie's time on Friday would have won both the Midwest and West Regionals, and would have been good enough for fourth place in the Mideast Region.
Ficken also has a provisional time to nationals in the 10,000-meter run, but will have to wait to see if that time or her 5K time are accepted to the national meet.
"Just like many events, the 5k is very deep in this region. Cassie did exactly what she needed to make her chance for an at large selection to nationals a definite possibility. Her goal was to run fast and put the 5K on the table as an option for NCAA's and she did just that. In fact depending on how other athletes across the nation decide on their events, it looks like we may have the luxury of choosing between the 5K and 10K at nationals."
Also on Friday night, Lamarra Currie (100), Aja Jackson (800) and Pat Springs (long jump) failed to qualify for their event finals. They finished 24th, 21st, and 32nd, respectively.
"Lamarra got some great experience as one of only eight freshman in the event and was critical in getting the 4x100m relay baton in school record time earlier in the day."
"Aja had a solid race in the fastest 800 field she'd ever seen. The time was her second-fastest ever after the impressive three-second school record drop she had at Georgia Tech two weeks ago. We're looking forward to good things at the US Junior Championships in four weeks."
"Pat had a tough time in the long jump, learning that in a meet this big you don't have much room for error. She had a very long foul on her second attempt but couldn't get what we needed for the finals in just three preliminary attempts. She bounced back great for the 4x100 team later in the day though running an impressive stagger eating lead off leg that put us right in the thick of things for advancing to that final."
MEN'S RECAP
The men's 4x100-meter relay team also narrowly missed out on an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships, finishing sixth with a time of 40.25. The team of Quincy Smith, Jason Moore, James Hanna and Ben McCallum had established a new school record of 40.17 in Friday's preliminary round and will wait to see if that season-best time will be good enough for an at-large selection to the national title meet.
"Similar to the women's squad, some decent exchanges allowed these guys to shave some time off the school record and make sure Charlotte had representation in both sprint relay finals. That is great exposure for the program, especially considering that a couple of them were a little banged up with injuries."
The men's 4x100 earned three points toward Charlotte's team score at the Regional Championships.
Ben McCallum added one point to the men's team score with an eighth-place finish in the 100-meter dash on Saturday. He ran 10.47 in the finals and will wait to see if his season-best time of 10.39 from earlier in the year will be good enough for him to advance to the national meet.
On Friday night, sophomore Jason Moore failed to advance in the 100, finishing 10th in the East at 10.52 (10.513, rounded). Running into a slight headwind, Moore was still able to beat his previous personal best of 10.59, and now moves into third place on the school's all-time list.
He still has a shot at qualifying for the NCAA National Championships by finishing in the top 12 of the East Region and will have to wait to see if his time is good enough to put him through.
"Ben and Jason did a good job with Ben advancing to the fnal and Jason getting a personal best."
James Bacon also added one point with an eighth-place finish, running 47.42 in the 400-meter dash on Saturday. He ran a personal-best and school-record time of 46.75 in the preliminaries on Friday, and will now wait to see if that time will be good enough for entry into the national championships.
"James has been chasing this school record for years," said Olesen. "It's gratifying to see him finally eclipse it and take up the role as the fastest quarter-miler in school history and a NCAA regional finalist as he closes out his career."
LaMarcus Outing scored the men's team's first point of the Championships on Friday night, posting an eighth-place finish in the long jump with a school-record distance. After fouling on his first two attempts, Outing posted his best distance of the day at 7.43 meters (24 feet, 4.5 inches). That is the third-best jump in school history, and Outing improved upon his previous personal best distance by 3.25 inches.
Like Moore in the 100, by finishing in the top 12 Outing will be entered into a pool of at-large candidates from around the country and awaits word on a possible national championship berth.
"LaMarcus did a fine job coming off of two foul attempts and putting a final qualifying mark out there. He's showing that he's going to be ready to make a run at advancing to nationals next year as his personal best steadily moves further."
Sean Patterson finished 17th and Eli Sunquist 20th in the triple jump on Saturday. Patterson's second jump in flight one was his best, as he went 14.96 meters (49 feet, 1 inch). Sunquist was best on his third and final jump in flight two, going 14.51 meters (47 feet, 7.25 inches). Both of their distances were wind-aided.
"Sean still has some technical things to iron out with his approach run and jump phase but acheived one of his important goals for the season by staying healthy and qualifying for the Regional champs. Like Outing, next season's goals will include advancing to nationals.
"Eli had technical difficulties adjusting to the high speed of his approach run on Saturday. While high speed is generally a good thing it can interfere with the jumper's previously established jump rhythm if they are not used to it. This final Regional appearance caps a great collegiate career that has come a long way from being a walk-on transfer four years ago."
With six points, the Charlotte men's team finished 37th out of 54 teams, and was the Atlantic 10's top finishing team in the East Region.
Charlotte 49ers NCAA East Region Track Championships Results - Final
All-East Region Performances (top 8 finishers)
Shareese Woods, women's 100-meter dash
Shareese Woods, women's 200-meter dash
Shareese Woods, women's 4x100-meter relay
Courtney Patterson, women's 100-meter dash
Courtney Patterson, women's 4x100-meter relay
Tsehaye Dagnachew, women's 3,000-meter steeplechase
Pat Springs, women's 4x100-meter relay
Lamarra Currie, women's 4x100-meter relay
Ben McCallum, men's 100-meter dash
Ben McCallum, men's 4x100-meter relay
Jason Moore, men's 4x100-meter relay
Quincy Smith, men's 4x100-meter relay
James Hanna, men's 4x100-meter relay
James Bacon, men's 400-meter dash
LaMarcus Outing, men's long jump
Automatic Qualifications to NCAA National Championships
Shareese Woods, women's 200-meter dash, 2nd
Shareese Woods, women's 100-meter dash, 3rd
Courtney Patterson, women's 100-meter dash, 4th
Event Final Results (considered for at-large to nationals)
Pat Springs, Shareese Woods, Lamarra Currie, Courtney Patterson, women's 4x100-meter relay, 5th
Tsehaye Dagnachew, women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, 6th
James Hanna, Ben McCallum, Quincy Smith, Jason Moore, men's 4x100-meter relay, 6th
James Bacon, men's 400-meter dash, 8th
Ben McCallum, men's 100-meter dash, 8th
LaMarcus Outing, men's long jump, 8th
Cassie Ficken, women's 5,000-meter run, 10th
Jason Moore, men's 100-meter dash, 10th
Sharonda Johnson, women's triple jump, 11th
Event Final Results (not considered for nationals)
Angel Moore, Tina Horne, Shareese Woods, Aja Jackson, women's 4x400-meter relay, 11th
Ben McCallum, men's 200-meter dash, 14th
Jason Moore, men's 200-meter dash, 15th
Sean Patterson, men's triple jump, 17th
Aja Jackson, women's 800-meter run, 21st
Eli Sunquist, men's triple jump, 21st
Lamarra Currie, women's 100-meter dash, 24th
Pat Springs, women's long jump, 32nd
