March 1, 2008

Complete Championship Results

HOUSTON, Texas - The University of Memphis men's track and field team placed fifth and the women placed third at Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Charlotte Abrahamsen was named C-USA Female Freshman of the Year and C-USA High Point Scorer of the Meet and Steffen Nerdal was named C-USA Male Performer of the Meet.

Rice women placed first with a total of 133.50 points. UTEP was next with 114.50 points and the Lady Tigers claimed the third place spot with 74.50 points. The third place showing is Memphis' highest showing since entering Conference USA in 1996.

On the men's side, Houston won the overall competition with 152 points, followed by Rice with 116.50, UTEP with 104 and Memphis finished in fifth with 88.50 points.

The men's field dominated the C-USA Championships as they went 1-2-3 in the men's shot put. Memphis was the only C-USA school to claim the top three spots in an event over the weekend. Glen Edwards successfully defended his title as he won the men's shot put with a mark of 17.04 meters (55-11.00). Greg Norrid had a personal-best and second place finish of 16.83 meters (55-02.75). Seth Major placed third with a mark of 16.46 meters (54-00.00). Knut Syversen rounded out the pack with a fifth place distance of 16.27 meters (53-04.50).

Preston Williams completed the heptathlon today, as he finished seventh with a total of 4,149 points.

The jumps took place in the morning as Aaron Whetstone and Jerome Leslie competed for Memphis. They both advanced to the finals where they Whetstone placed sixth with 14.65 meters (48-00.75) and Leslie finished with a jump of 14.00 meters (45-11.25). Both men had personal bests in the event.

The women's shot put began the day on the women's side as Memphis went 1-3-4 to gather a total of 20 points in the event. Susan King finished first with a throw of 16.72 meters (54-02.25). Sivan Aballi placed third with a mark of 15.39 meters (50-06.00), while Charlotte Abrahamsen placed fourth with a distance of 15.16 meters (49-09.00), a personal best.

Abrahamsen and Chen Edri went 2-3 in the high jump. They both leaped to a height of 1.73 meters (5-08.00) to score for the Lady Tigers.

Tina Sherratt ran a season-best time 4:59.65 in the mile finishing sixth. She later went on to record another sixth place finish in the 800-meters with a time of 2:15.52.

In the 60-meter hurdles Memphis advanced three guys to the finals. Senior Amaechi Oselukwue crossed the line in second place with a time of 8.12. Williams placed sixth with a time of 8.38 and Darius Anderson finished eighth with a time of 8.46.

Jessica Wright clocked a time of 57.24 to finish seventh in the women's 400-meters.

Frashod Barlow placed seventh in the men's 60-meter dash with a time of 7.10. Brian Prackett was able to leap to a height of 13-11.75 in the men's pole vault to record an eighth place finish.

The University of Memphis has four athletes who qualified for the NCAA Championships. The NCAA's will take place on March 14-15 in Fayetteville, Ark.