Samantha Elliott earned the Most Outstanding Female Track Athlete Award with wins in both the 100m hurdles and the 400m hurdles
Results
Petersburg, VA – The Johnson C. Smith University women's outdoor track and field team tallied 129 points to place second overall at the 2012 CIAA Championships held at the Virginia State Track on April 20-21. The team battled through the setback of losing senior sprinter and hurdler
Rosemarie Carty (St. Andrew, Jamaica) to injury prior to the championship events.
JCSU dealt with further setbacks on day one of the championships with losses of All-Americans
Monique Kelly (St. Andrew, Jamaica) and
Danielle Williams (St. Andrew, Jamaica) to hamstring injuries. Despite it all, the team stepped up repeatedly with great performances and finished 10.5 points short of a repeat championship crown. At the end the final standings were as follows:
Women - Team Rankings - 16 Events Scored
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1) Virginia State 139.50 2) Johnson C. Smith 129
3) St. Augustine's 115 4) Winston-Salem St. 111
5) Bowie State 42.50 6) Livingstone 38
7) Virginia Union 28 8) Lincoln (Pa.) 17
Freshman
Samantha Elliott (Kingston, Jamaica) earned the Most Outstanding Female Track Athlete Award with wins in both the 100m hurdles (13.60, SB) and the 400m hurdles (59.66). Elliott also placed second in the 100m (12.18). She achieved a personal best 11.88 in the 100m preliminary round. Junior
Xahnn-Georgia Reid (Clarendon, Jamaica) was equally dominant in the field to earn the Most Outstanding Female Field Athlete Award by placing second in the long jump (5.93m, SB), high jump (1.65m) and fourth in the triple jump (11.60m).
On the track, junior
Naffene Briscoe (St. Catherine, Jamaica) placed 9th overall in the 100m prelims (12.38), thus being one place out of the finals. Both Kelly and Williams failed to finish their preliminary heat. Briscoe again took 9th best in the 200m prelims (25.50).
The 400m had Golden Bulls' representation from freshman
Monique Lovelock (57.45) and senior
Sasha-Gay Cunningham (57.91). They placed 9th and 12th, respectively in the overall preliminary rankings, but were eliminated from the event final.
In the 800m, freshman
Maddisyn Blue (Sierra Vista, AZ) experienced her first outdoor championships as for a pace of 2:35.77 to claim 17th overall in the event. Blue also placed 17th overall in the 1500m in 5:50.69. JCSU took 1st, 3rd and 4th in the 100n hurdles through Elliott (13.60, SB), Lovelock (14.59) and sophomore
A'Tyan Kennedy (14.78), respectively. Williams the second fastest qualifier to the final was unable to compete in the final due to injury.
JCSU maintained dominance in the hurdles with finishes of 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th in the 400m hurdles. Elliott (59.66), Lovelock (59.71, PB), Kennedy (61.41, PB) and Cunningham (62.62, SB), respectively earned those spots. The performance was an automatic qualifying mark for Lovelock and moved her to 5th on the NCAA event ranking. Kennedy attained her first provisional mark in an individual event and moved to 13th in the nation in the NCAA event ranking.
In the relays, JCSU placed 2nd in the 4x100m (Lovelock-Briscoe-Elliott-Kennedy, 47.03) and third in the 4x400m (Lovelock-Briscoe-Kennedy-Cunningham, 3:51.60).
In the field events, Reid placed 2nd in the high jump (1.65m) while sophomore
Evan Gholson (Sacramento, CA) placed 12th with 1.45m. Reid again claimed 2nd in the long jump (5.93m, SB) followed by Williams 4th (5.54m) and Kelly 10th overall in 5.03m. The jump moved Reid up to 7th in the NCAA event rankings with three weeks remaining until the final date for qualifying for the 2012 NCAA DII Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Reid completed triple event duties in the triple jump; she placed 4th (11.60, PB) and Gholson (10.26m) in 12th. Senior
Marcia Higgins (12.22m, PB) broke the school record in the shot put event placing 5th. Senior
Antoinette Taylor (10.60m) placed 11th. Freshman
Imeshia Jones (8.88m) and first time participant Phyllis Jenson (8.86m) placed 19th and 20th respectively.
Higgns stormed back for victory in the discus and had a winning throw of 40.46m, just shy of her school record achieved the previous week. Jenson (32.74, PB) was 6th overall and Taylor (26.88m) in 14th. Jones floated the javelin 38.77m to a new personal best, school record, and a CIAA Championship victory. Sophomore
Shaquitta Anderson (30.87, PB) and Higgins (30.05m) placed 5th and 6th, respectively.
Anderson beat her previous personal best on five of her six throws in the event; which is marked improvement for the conclusion of her sophomore season. Jones surpassed her previous PB with each of her legal throws at the event to cap her first year. These championships marked the end of the regular season.
The Golden Bulls' postseason begins with the Penn Relays on April 26-28, 2012 to be held at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field.
