Courtesy: Southern Conference
Release: 02/24/2006
Courtesy: Southern Conference
The 2006 Southern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships kicked off on Friday at the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Facility with Appalachian State taking control on both the men's and the women's side.
Appalachian State won seven of the 10 SoCon individual championship event finals on Friday, with student-athletes from the men's side earning four championships, while the women tallied three.
On the men's side, Barron Shell of Appalachian State won the men's pole vault over teammate Dan Queen with his vault of 4.71 meters. Queen reached the same mark, but Shell garnered the title due to reaching the vault in the fewest number of tries.
Appalachian State's Anthony Greer won his second consecutive SoCon shot put championship with a throw of 15.63 meters. Greer's throw earned him his third SoCon title in the last four years, as he also won the title in 2003.
Freshman Ricky Harris of Appalachian State procured his first SoCon High Jump crown on Friday evening with a jump of 1.98 meters.
An Appalachian State men's student-athlete also acquired a SoCon championship for the second year in a row in the long jump. Mark Sturgis took the title in 2006 with a jump of 6.96 meters, dethroning 2005 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Long Jump champ and teammate Joel Gaddy, who won the event in the previous year with a jump of 7.09 meters, but bowed out into eighth place in 2006.
On the women's side, Appalachian State's Beverly Burnett tallied a hurl of 14.88 meters to commandeer the win in the finals of the women's shot put. Burnett's victory marked the third straight year that an Appalachian State woman has acquired the SoCon crown in the event.
Sophomore Vonteena Knotts of Appalachian State solidified her first SoCon Long Jump victory with a jump of 6.07 meters.
Appalachian State's Kristie Boggan commandeered the title in the women's indoor pentathlon with a cumulative point total of 3,147.
Individually, Chattanooga's Shannon Wommack won her fourth 3000 meter indoor crown (2002-04, 2006) on Friday afternoon, setting an NCAA provisional mark of 9:34.1 and shattering the SoCon record in the process. Wommack's time in the event bested Chattanooga's Amanda Lynch's six-year-old record of 9:45:31 by over 10 seconds. Second-place finisher Kathleen Turchin of Chattanooga also broke Lynch's former standard after coming in at 9:45.2.
Jessika Johnson of Western Carolina defeated teammate Brittany Whitaker in the women's high jump with a mark of 1.64 meters. The jump equaled Whitaker's, but Johnson was awarded the SoCon crown on number of chances.
Western Carolina's Adam Puett, who won the mile run in the 2005 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships, picked up the victory in the 3,000 meter run on Friday afternoon with a time of 8:30.16, hitting the finish line a fraction of a second before second-place finisher Adam Van Nortwick (8:30.85) of Appalachian State and third-place finisher Dan Fassinger (8:30.86) of Western Carolina.
The Appalachian State foursome of Kasey Smith, Anna Baker, Caroline Jett and Meghan Gaffney claimed the SoCon championship in the Women's Distance Medley with a cumulative time of 12:11.01. In the Men's Distance Medley, Western Carolina behind the grouping of Adam Puett, Dylan Hermelee, Charleton Grant and Dan Fassinger inched past second place finisher Appalachian State to win the event with a time of 10:05.02.
In preliminary action at the 2006 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championship, Lawrence Briscoe of Western Carolina broke his own record, as well as the conference record in the men's 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.16 in the men's trials. In the second heat of the men's 60 meter hurdle trials, Charles Derrickson of Appalachian State broke the SoCon record again with a time of 7.99. Both will advance to the finals.
The second day of the 2006 SoCon Indoor Track and Field Championships commences at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning at the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Facility. The final event of the day is scheduled to take place at 6:15 p.m.