Woods Advances to 200m Semifinals at AT&T USA Track Championships
June 24, 2006
Indianapolis - Charlotte junior All-American Shareese Woods finished with the sixth-fastest time in the 200-meter preliminary round on Saturday, breaking her own school record and advancing to the semifinals at the 2006 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium. Chase Eckard ended a productive Finish Line Junior Championship meet with a 14th-place finish in the 1,500, after earning Junior All-American honors in the 800 yesterday.
The women's 200-meter dash semifinal round begins at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday, while the Championship race is run at 4:30 p.m. At least Sunday's final, and possibly the semifinals, will be aired on national television. ESPN2 will televise the meet on a tape-delayed basis from 5:00-7:00 p.m. ET.
In addition to her solid performance on Saturday, the Charlotte standout received some other good news while on her trip to IUPUI's campus. Woods has spoken with USATF officials and they indicated that she would be in the relay pool for the U.S. team that will be competing at the NACAC Under 23 Track & Field Championships July 7-9 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Charlotte49ers.com will have more details on Woods' entry in the NACAC Under 23 Championships as it becomes available. The North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) competition consists of 31 different countries from the Western Hemisphere that are members of the association.
But on Saturday, Woods ran the sixth-fastest time among some heady competition in the 200, the same event in which she earned NCAA All-American honors two weekends ago. The Charlotte junior was clocked at a school-record 22.95 seconds, putting her third in heat two and giving her an automatic qualification into Sunday's semifinals.
Woods had run a wind-aided 22.70 seconds earlier in the year, but this new mark of 22.95 counts toward the school's recordbooks.
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Woods finished behind NCAA Champion Shalonda Solomon and Olympic 100m medalist Lauryn Williams in heat two, as the foursome ran into a slight headwind. Also scheduled to be in the heat, but pulling out before the race, was former Olympian Marion Jones.
The top 16 advanced to tomorrow's semifinals, which will continue to include some of the top sprinters in the world. LaTasha Jenkins ran the day's fastest time at 22.51, followed by Rachelle Boone-Smith (22.53), Muna Lee (22.80), Solomon (22.86), Williams (22.87) and Woods (22.95). The top three finishers from each of four heats plus the next four fastest times were selected.
Woods will be among seven college stars in tomorrow's semifinals, including a pair of familiar names from the NCAA Championship race. Solomon (South Carolina, 1st), Ebonie Floyd (Houston, 5th), and Woods (6th) were all in the eight-woman NCAA race.
Information about Woods' heat selection for Sunday's semis will be available later on Saturday night, so please check this story again Saturday night or Sunday morning for more information.
Woods advanced to the 2006 AT&T Indoor Championships 400-meter title race this winter, finishing seventh overall.
Also in action on Saturday, freshman Junior All-American Chase Eckard ran in the junior men's 1,500-meter run championship and finished 14th. The Granite Falls, N.C. native had earned his Junior All-American award in the 800-meter run on Friday, inching closer to the school record in that event.
