Angelica Howard and Women's Track Successful at Ole Miss
4/11/2009 12:00:00 AM
April 11, 2009
OXFORD, Miss. - The Alabama women's track and field team competed at the Ole Miss Invitational on Saturday at the Ole Miss Track and Field Complex. The Crimson Tide won four events and had five athletes earn a spot at the regional championships.
Krystle Schade set a personal best in the high jump and tied the SEC leaders with a clearance of the bar set at 6-0 in route to a victory in the event. The mark also ties her for fifth in school history.
Christina Octavien turned in a fourth place finish in the discus with a throw of 148-1, just nine inches off her season best.
Setting two enormous personal bests and regional marks, Angelica Howard first threw the shot put 50-9 1/2 on her way to a fifth place finish. Her throw was a new best by exactly two feet. Even more impressive though was her winning heave of 195-0 in the hammer throw, bettering her previous career best by over 16 feet moving her from fifth to second in the SEC. In 2009 alone, Howard has improved her hammer throw by 36-10. Her throws put her fifth in the shot put and second in the hammer throw in school history.
Elizabeth Wilson threw her season best in the hammer throw as well by over six feet. She finished fourth with a mark of 164-7.
Meghan Austin also hit a regional mark in the javelin throw with a season best heave of 143-4 as she won the event.
Smashing her previous season and personal best in the 1,500m, Meghan Hawkins posted a time of 4:48.01. The time was a 16 second improvement from two weeks ago.
In the 100m hurdles, Kimberley Laing won the fourth event of the day for the Crimson Tide with her third straight regional qualifier in as many weeks running a time of 13.60. Audra Frimpong just missed the regional mark of 13.92 as she leaned for the finish line with a personal best time of 14.06 to place fifth.
"Overall, we had a pretty good meet," sprints, hurdles, and jumps coach Scott Roberts said. "Angelica Howard had a huge throw in the hammer which I would think should put her in the top 10 in the country. I was real proud of Krystle Schade, in just her third meet, going six feet. Kimberley Laing continued to look really good in the hurdles, as did Audra Frimpong. Toni Graham was also under 12 seconds in the 100m dash for the first time in her college career. We're starting to get into the grind of our season and the girls are looking better each week."
The women's track and field team will return to action next week on April 17-18 at the Volunteer Track Classic in Knoxville, Tenn.
Players Mentioned
