Friday's Results
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Norfolk State women's track and field team pulled of a 1-4 sweep in the pole vault and finished second through fourth in the heptathlon on day 2 of the 2009 MEAC Outdoor Championship at the Irwin Belk Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T University. Through six events, the Spartans lead the field with 63 points.
Maryland Eastern Shore is in second place with 30 points.
As expected, NSU dominated the pole vault and repeated the 1-4 sweep that they achieved at this year's indoor championship. Freshman Katie Wright (Virginia Beach, Va.) won the title after clearing 10 feet, eight and ¼ inches, while junior Candace Shoates (Chesapeake, Va.) came in second with a mark of 9-2 ½. Freshman Andrea Saunders (Chesapeake, Va.) and sophomore Ashleigh Joseph (Chesapeake, Va.) finished third and fourth, respectively, after each clearing 8-8 ¾.
In addition to the 29 points the Spartans earned in the pole vault, they picked up an additional 19 points in the heptathlon. Senior Victoria Faulkner (Newport News, Va.) finished second with 4,721 points, sophomore Tanisha Jenkins (Louisa, Va.) finished third with 4,563 points and freshman Ashanti Matthews (Norfolk, Va.) came in fourth with 4,290 points.
In the long jump, sophomore Wanetta Kirby (Richmond, Va.) placed third with a jump of 19-4 and sophomore Janet Brown (Chesapeake, Va.) hit a mark of 18-10 for a fifth-place finish.
Faulkner led NSU in the javelin by finishing fourth with a throw of 113-1 and was the Spartans' third finisher in the long jump (17-0).
Junior Tia Miles (Richmond, Va.) was the Spartans' top finisher in the 5000, completing the run in 20:09.84. Freshman Jamia Hutto (Orlando, Fla.) finished 11th in 20:46.09, while sophomore Jennifer Chichester (Silver Spring, Md.) came in 14th in 21:37.64.
In Friday's qualifying races, freshman Shanneka Claiborne (Ettrick, Va.) made it to Saturday's 100-meter finals with a time of 11.63. Sophomore Dania Sanford (Marshall, Va.) qualified for the 200 (23.99) and Allyssa Pickett (Hampton, Va.) ran a regional-qualifying time of 1:00.71 in the preliminaries of the 400 hurdles.
Saturday's competition begins with the men's and women's triple jump at 10 a.m.
