Tide Women?s Track Competes in Nashville and Auburn
4/23/2006 12:00:00 AM
The Alabama women’s track and field team wrapped up two good days of competition at the Vanderbilt Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday as well as having a group of athletes compete at the Auburn Invitational.
“I’m very much excited by how the meet went for us in Nashville,” Alabama head coach Sandy Fowler said. “We had a nice day today and I thought last night was great.”
Beth Mallory was the star of the day for the Tide in Nashville, setting a new meet record in winning the discus throw with a mark of 170’10”. The senior All-American also finished second in the hammer throw with a season best 202’10” and placed fourth in the shot put with a mark of 48’5.25”.
“I think she actually had some longer discus throws in warm ups but the wind wasn’t really cooperating with her,” Fowler said. “She’s there though with her performance and she knows it so we are excited about that.”
Lorna Finn also competed in the throws for the Tide, just missing her personal best in the shot put with her mark of 42’6.75”. She placed 15th in the hammer throw with a heave of 140’4”.
Jen Gray paced four Alabama athletes in the 800m with a sixth place time of 2:15.27. Elizabeth Wancowicz, Megan Betts and Whitney Taylor finished with times of 2:17.39, 2:19.86 and 2:19.95, respectively.
Wancowicz took ninth place in the 400m dash with a mark of 58.79. Betts and Taylor followed, posting marks of 1:00.10 and 1:01.42.
Alabama’s distance runners also had a great night on Friday after the rain had passed through the Nashville area.
“The conditions were perfect for them last night to run,” Fowler said. “They rain cooled things off. It was a really good confidence booster for everyone who ran.”
In the 1,500m run, Julia Hicks finished second place with a time of 4:30.53, less than two-tenths of a second behind the winner. Gray added a seventh place finish with her personal best time of 4:41.84 and Wancowicz came in 11th with her run of 4:45.33. Piper Broderick and Lauren Lambert set new personal bests as well.
Megan Carnes was Alabama’s top finisher in the 3,000m run. Carnes took sixth place with a time of 10:13.01. Katie Davis finished 13th with a personal best time of 10:35.95.
On Saturday at the Auburn Invitational, Kendall Clifford led the way for Alabama with three top ten finishes in four events. She placed ninth in the javelin, her first time to compete in the event this season. Clifford also took fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18’6.5” and took seventh in the 100m hurdles with her time of 14.62.
Lynda Cooper and Jessica McNeal ran times of 12.60 and 13.29 in the 100m dash, respectively. Kayla Natale took third in the pole vault with a clearance of 10’11.75”.
Alabama returns to action next Thursday at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
“Drake is a big meet,” Fowler said. “It’s an opportunity for everyone to go up there and shine. The team is looking forward to going. The girls are ready. It should be fun.”
