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Gators Look for Outdoor Championship
May 3, 2007
DELAWARE, Ohio – After falling in the indoor North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships in the winter, the Allegheny College women’s track and field team looks to take the outdoor championships at the league meet hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
The meet starts on Thursday at noon with the women’s shot put, an event that the Gators have the top three competitors, as Liz Earley (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township), Kristen Angelo (Hubbard, Ohio/Hubbard) and Sophia Braden (Farmington, Mich./Roeper) are the only competitors to have thrown the eight-pound weight 11 meters. Earley leads the way with a toss of 39-6.75, while Angelo with a toss of 38-11.75 and Braden with a toss of 38-2.75, lead the fourth place competitor by nearly three feet. One of the trio looks to become the Gators’ first NCAC outdoor champion since 1987, when Sandie Starr won three straight titles from 1985 through 1987.
Two and a half hours later the long jump and discus throw start. In the long jump, Emily Pfeufer (St. Mary’s, Pa./Elk County Catholic) looks to defend her 2006 conference crown, and the field by four and a half inches with a leap of 18-3.25, while Hannah Smith (Rice Lake, Wisc./Rice Lake), with a leap of 15-11, and Katie Pankowski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Woodland Hills), with a top jump of 15-7.5, sit in ninth and 12th, respectively, in the field. The same time as the long jump being contested, the Gators look to take another crown in the discus throw, an event Earley won a season ago. Earley is sitting in second place in the event with a toss of 123-3 with Angelo not far behind in third place with a distance of 119-0. Braden rounds out the Gator trio by sitting in sixth place with a toss of 108-5.
With the first-day field events out of the way, the teams jump straight into the preliminary running events with the 100-meter hurdles. Of the 11 entries in the field, the Blue and Gold have four, led by the duo of Pfeufer and Smith, the Gators sit in third and fourth with times of 15.70 and 15.71, respectively, each just off of the school record set in 2000. Liz Straus (Kirtland, Ohio/Kirtland) and Jessica Gratton (Bridgeville, Pa./Chartiers Valley) come into the event ranked sixth and seventh with times of 16.30 and 16.51, respectively.
Rebecca Aiken’s (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) time of 1:01.15 comes into the competition ranked sixth, while teammate Jaime Shinn (Edinboro, Pa./General McLane) comes into the meet without a time in the event. An event later, in the 100-meter dash, Allegheny is led by Gail Raspanti (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) who has the sixth best time in the field, while Pfeufer and Sarah Holick (Hillsborough, N.J./Mt. St. Mary Academy) each are competing after not running the event during the year.
Carley Latus (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) looks to break up an Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin sweep in the 800-meter run, as she is seeded eighth with a time of 2:23.60 while Lindsay Svetlak (Lowellville, Ohio/Lowellville) looks to help after not running a time in the event this season. Straus has the third fastest time in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:06.65, as the Gators qualified a total of four runners in the event. Heather Knupp (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) and Smith are sixth and eighth in the event in times of 1:09.07 and 1:10.62 with Gratton rounding out the four with a time of 1:10.86, as she is sitting in 10th place.
Three Gators, Aiken, Holick and Raspanti are seeded sixth, seventh and eighth in the 200-meter dash, with the trio running between 27.11 (Aiken) and 27.79 (Raspanti).The final scored event of the second day comes on the final event, the 10,000-meter run, where Michelle Corkum (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) has the second fastest time in the event at 37:50.45, just over ten seconds off of the Division III qualifying mark. Sarah Powers (Bexley, Ohio/Columbus School for Girls) has the sixth fastest time in the field at 41:17.00.
The second day starts with the javelin throw, where the Gators have five entrants into the field, including conference leader Pankowski, a NCAA Division III provisional qualifier and 2005 conference champion in the event, who leads by nearly ten feet over the second place competitor. Pfeufer currently has the third best throw, at 120-7, with Jace Pennisi (Milltown, N.J./East Brunswick) and Emily Kiernan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) ranking fifth and sixth respectively in the event. Allegheny’s final qualifier Earley, has the ninth best throw in the field, less than four inches from eighth place. Pfeufer will be pulling double duty to start the second day, as the same time the javelin is going in, she is going to be competing in the triple jump, an event she earned NCAA Division III All-American honors in over the last two NCAA Championships. Her leap of 11.59 meters (38-0.25 feet) meets the NCAA provisional qualifying mark and leads second place by nearly two feet. Smith currently ranks sixth in the event with a distance of 33-6.75.
After the pair of events start the second day, the hammer throw and high jump are set to begin at 12:30. Earley seems the favorite to dominate in the hammer throw, as the junior has Division III’s third highest toss this season in the event, and is automatically qualified for the national championships. Angelo, ranked third overall is joined by Pankowski in her first attempts at the event. While the hammer throw is being conducted, Pfeufer will compete in her third event of the early day, as she takes part in the high jump, along with teammates Straus and Latus. Pfeufer is currently seeded second, with Straus and Latus seeded fifth and ninth, respectively.
The opening running event of the day is the 3,000-meter steeple chase, starting at 2:50 p.m. with Andrea Patterson (Horseheads, N.Y./Horseheads) and Kim Tranel (East Dubuque, Ill./Wahlert (Iowa)) seeded fifth and sixth with times of 12:30.10 and 12:39.65, respectively. After the 4x100-meter relay, in which the Gator team is ranked third, competes, it is on to the 1,500-meter run where Latus, Svetlak and Scarlett Graham (Farmington, Pa./Uniontown) look to push themselves higher than their seventh, eighth and ninth seeding heading into the second day.
In the final individual running event of the championships, the 5,000-meter run, freshman Mia Symoniak (Snyder, N.Y./Amherst Central) is the top Gator runner and third best in the league with a time of 18:30.03 earlier this year with teammate Corkum’s best time this year was 18:30.71, good for fourth overall. Graham, who is also running the 1,500, will be competing in the 3.1-mile race, looking to add points for the Gator cause.