March 28, 2009

Results

BATON ROUGE, La. - The University of Memphis track and field squad put up solid marks across the board at the LSU Relays on both Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 including two NCAA regional qualifying marks by a pair of Lady Tiger shot put athletes.

"I thought we showed a lot of improvement today," said head coach Kevin Robinson. "The conditions today were not ideal today for recording great marks, but we did show improvement from last week."

In the field today, three Lady Tigers grabbed NCAA regional qualifying marks. Senior Sivan Aballi qualified herself in the shot put with a mark of 15.31m (50-02.75) along with teammate sophomore Marina Vojinovic who notched a mark of 14.73m (48-04.00). Freshman Inger Anne Froysedal recorded what would have been a qualifying mark of 12.52m (41-01.00) in the triple jump, but her leap was too wind-aided for the mark to surpass the qualifying standard.

"Our girls in the field were great today," said Robinson. "We had two shot putters who put up qualifying marks and Inger in the triple jump had the mark, but was not given the full credit for it because of a wind rule."

Senior Christian McDonald took fourth in the javelin with a throw of 61.17m (200-08). Sophomore Jerome Leslie finished ninth in the triple jump with a leap of 14.23m (46-08.25) while fellow sophomore Aaron Whetstone had a third-place jump of 14.90m (48-10.75).

On the track, sophomore Edwin Kipkorir grabbed a second-place finish today in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 9:46.09. Freshman Aaron Evans took third in the 800m run with a time of 1:54.29 while sophomore Guy Hudson ran a 1:57.95 earning tenth-place.

For the Lady Tigers, in the 400m hurdles, junior transfer Tayanna Simpson earned third-place by clocking in at 1:01.68 with teammate sophomore Holland Thomas took eighth-place with a time of 1:05.74. Another junior transfer LaBritney Horton earned ninth-place in the finals of the 100m dash field with a time of 12.34. The Lady Tigers' 4x100m relay team logged a sixth-place finish with a time of 46.79.

"I was happy with the way that our team showed improvement," said Robinson. "If we can continue to show the same improvement week in and week out, when the conditions are right, we should be in a very good position to meet some of our goals put up some really impressive marks."

Highlights from day one include several solid performances from the field from sophomore Whetstone who recorded a personal record mark of 7.32m (24-00.25). Sophomore Charlotte Abrahamsen competed in the javelin for the first time in 2009 and recorded a fourth-place mark of 41.79m (137-01). Freshman Inger Anne Froysedal placed seventh in the high jump with a height of 1.65m (5-05.00) while Leslie also placed 11th on the men's side with a height of 1.90m (6-02.75).

Memphis athletes Steffen Nerdal and Knut Syversen competed in the hammer throw, but unattached. Nerdal beat his personal best with a mark of 68.80m (225-09) while Syversen also bested a personal record with a toss of 57.38m (188-03). Syversen also competed in the shot put and recorded a mark of 16.57m (54-04.50).

"This was a good meet to see where we stand and how and where we need to improve," said Robinson. "Our kids are a little tired, but we can head back to practice and continue to work hard this week on the way to qualifying as many of our athletes for NCAA regionals as possible."

The Tigers are in action again next weekend at the Gatorade Classic in Cape Girardeau, Mo. on the campus of Southeast Missouri State on Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4.