Feb. 24, 2006

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HOUSTON, Texas - J.D. Erickson and Brandon Winbush each put up strong performances and grabbed a runner-up tally to lead Memphis on day one of the Conference USA Indoor Championships at the University of Houston's Yeoman Fieldhouse.

Erickson posted a personal-best effort of 63-10.50" (19.47m) in the weight throw to finish in second place and log eight points. The mark also surpassed the NCAA provisional qualifying mark for the weight and broke Tiger record for the event, which was previously held by field events coach Kevin Robinson.

Winbush finished a heart-breaking second place in the long jump, missing out on the event title by just a quarter of an inch. The junior equaled his season-best leap of 23-06.00" (7.16m) and finished runner-up to UTEP's Mickael Hanany with a mark of 23-06.25" (7.17m).

Norbert Gulyas was the only other Tiger to score on the day, placing fifth in the weight throw a mark of 49-07.00 (15.11m) to pick up four points.

On the women's side Daniele Riendeau clocked a time of 17:46.09 to finish sixth in the 5000m and register three points for the Lady Tigers. The time was also a new Lady Tiger record for the event, shattering the previous mark by nearly a minute.

Annette Uzoh and Nikole Jackson finished sixth and seventh, respectively in the weight throw with tosses of 55-06.25" (16.92m) and 54-10.25" (16.72m to pick up a total of five points and round out the day-one scoring for the U of M women. Susan King just missed scoring in the weight, placing ninth with a throw of 54-04.75" (16.58m).

Whitney Bolton equaled her school-record mark of 10-06.00" (3.20m) in the pole vault to tie for sixth fifth place, but was knocked out of scoring position based on number of attempts.

The U of M men sit in sixth place with a total of 20 points after day one, while the women are in tenth place with 8 points. UTEP leads the men's team competition with 48 points, with Rice leading the women's race with 51 points.

Several U of M athletes are in solid scoring position entering day two of the meet. Jason Morgan sits in great shape entering day two of the heptathlon, as the sophomore's total of 2,637 points leaves him in third place, just 104 points out of the lead.

Two Memphis men advanced to the finals in the 60m dash, with Willie Green qualifying third in a time of 6.86s and Daniel Bandy qualifying fifth in a personal-best equaling time of 6.92s.

Austin Hunter qualified for the 400m finals comfortably, finishing in 49.10s to clock the fifth-fastest time, while Larry Harris reached the finals in the 60m hurdles, qualifying fourth with a time of 8.51s.

A number of U of M throwers, including Erickson and King, who both enter tomorrow's shot put atop the conference rankings, should also have a solid shot to score on the second day of the meet.

Competition on day two of the C-USA Indoor Championships will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the completion of the heptathlon, while field events will resume at 11 a.m., with running events to follow at 1 p.m.