Gators Win 12th NCAC Title

May 5, 2006

Final Results (PDF)
Photogallery

DELAWARE, Ohio – The Allegheny College Gators won their 12th North Coast Athletic Conference Title, and their seventh of the last eight years, running away from the competition at the NCAC Championships hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University.

Leading the Gators in the event was sophomore Emily Pfeufer (St. Marys/Elk County Catholic) (right) ran away with the NCAC Field Event Athlete of the Meet, winning the triple jump, long jump and heptathlon, while taking second in the high jump and fourth in the javelin. Allegheny head coach Bill Ross was also named the NCAC Coach of the Year.

The Gators scored 211 points, 73 points ahead of second place Ohio Wesleyan, while Wooster and Denison took third and fourth, scoring 89.5 and 83 points, respectively.

In all, 10 different Gator athletes earned All-Conference honors by virtue of placing in the top three, as those 10 athletes earned a total of 18 All-Conference honors.

Pfeufer took first in her only field event of the second day, upsetting indoor conference champion Katie Walker with a leap of 17-9.5. Amanda Grilli (Washington/Trinity) added to the Gator point totals in the event, as she leaped to a distance of 15-10.25, good for fifth place in the tournament.

The Gators had three scorers in three different events, the 100-meter hurdles, the 800-meter run and the 5,000-meter run.

Elyse Kebert (Meadville) took fifth among the competitors in the 100-meter hurdles, sprinting to a time of 16.33, while Caitlin Nay (Uniontown, Ohio/Green) and Jessica Gratton (Bridgeville/Chartiers Valley) ran to times of 16.92 and 17.21, placing sixth and seventh, respectively.

Rachelle Glass (New Castle/Shenango) (left) took third in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:20.62, a season best, while Lindsay Svetlak (Lowellville, Ohio) took sixth in a time of 2:25.99, while Caroline LaRochelle (Meadville) took eighth in a time of 2:40.23.

The final three-Gator scoring finish came in the 5,000-meter run, as Scarlett Graham (Farmington/Uniontown) took second with a time of 18:08.1, while Eva Weyers (Delanson, N.Y./Duanesburg) and Molly McGravey (Orchard Park, N.Y.) took seventh and eighth in times of 19:09.25 and 19:31.16, respectively.

Graham and McGravey, earlier in the day, took first and third in the 1,500-meter run, as Graham finished in an NCAA Division III provisional time of 4:37.94, while McGravey placed third with a season-best time of 4:45.73.

Sarah Sammel (Pittsburgh/Bethel Park), the pole vault champion from the first day, scored in a pair of sprinting events, the 100- and 200-meter dashes. In the 100-meter dash, the sophomore took fourth in a time of 13.21, a season-best, while sprinting to a third place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.11. Pfeufer added to her point total on the day by placing eighth in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line in a time of 13.57, her best this season in the event.

Elizabeth Earley (Venetia/Peters Township) added to her accolades with a first place finish in the hammer throw and a second place finish in the shot put. Earley demolished the field in the hammer throw, as the sophomore, who was already provisionally qualified to nationals in the event, bested the second place finisher by over 30 feet. With two first place finishes in the bag already in the championships, Early took aim at the shot put conference title, and with her final throw of the competition, she hurled the weight 38-7.75, taking the overall lead with one thrower to go. That last thrower, however, was Liz Newell, who unleashed her best throw of the competition, tossing a distance of 38-9.0, beating Earley by just an inch and a quarter.

Liz Straus (Kirtland, Ohio) and Heather Knupp (Canonsburg/Canon-McMillian) took second and fourth, respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles, as Straus finished the one-lap event in a time of 1:07.09, while Knupp finished in a time of 1:08.01, as each were season bests.

Kim Tranel (E. Dubuque, Ill./Wahlert (Iowa)) and Adrianne Grand (Pittsburgh/Keystone Oaks) finished fifth and eighth, respectively in the 3,000-meter steeple chase, Tranel running a time of 12:29.33, while Grand crossed the finish line in a time of 13:10.99.

Rebecca Aiken (Pittsburgh/Fox Chapel) sprinted to a sixth place finish in the 400-meter dash, finishing the one-lap event in a time of 1:04.07.

Aiken then led a quartet of Gators to a fourth place finish in the 4x400-meter relay, as Aiken, Straus, Glass and Jaime Shinn (Edinboro/General McLane) finished in a time of 4:14.11. The Gator quartet of Nay, Gratton, Sammel and Jessie Shields (Union City) placed sixth in the 4x100-meter relay, finishing the one-lap event in a time of 52.14.

The next meet for the Blue and Gold is on May 10, when the team travels to Naperville, Illinois to compete at the North Central (Ill.) Invitational, hosted by North Central College.

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