May 10, 2008
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - - UTA senior long jumper Quinchun Carey saved his best performance of the season for the Southland Conference Track and Field Championships.
Carey's leap of 25 feet, 1.25 inches in Saturday's second day of competition was good enough to earn him a regional-qualifying distance, make him a conference champion and tally 10 points for UTA. The Maverick men are trying to repeat as SLC outdoor champions, and Carey's jump gets things started on the right foot.
Carey, who has now successfully battled back from a knee injury that forced him to sit out last year, bested his previous season long of 24 feet, 6.5 inches.
UTA's men also got a point in the decathlon from newcomer Yavor Gerenski. The freshman from Bulgaria finished eighth. In the final event of Saturday night, Jody Broccoli-Hickey finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The UTA women got a point from Charquenta Dishmon in the heptathlon.A seventh-place finish by Annabelle Everritt in the 3000-meter steeplechase was good enough for two points.
After the second day of scoring for the women, UTA was in 10th place with three points. Stephen F. Austin led with 73.33 points. After the final event of the night Saturday for the men, UTA stood in fifth place with 29 points. Southeastern Louisiana leads with 65.
In the preliminaries Saturday, UTA placed three runners in the finals of the 1,500 meters - Carranda Mose, Christina Mose and Amanda McMahon. Tim Thompson grabbed the eighth and final spot to qualify for Sunday's finals in the 110 hurdles. Eddie Beckwith and Takeshi Fujiwara had the second and fourth fastest times, respectively, in the 400 meters to qualify for the finals in the 400 meters.
Not surprisingly, Jasmine Walls continued to be the fastest 100-meter runner in the conference by turning in an event-best 11.58 to qualify for the finals.
Jarid Vaughan and Cordero Gray give the Mavericks two runners in the men's 100 meters. Gray's time of 21.21 in the 200 meters was under the regional qualifying time in that event and good enough to move him ahead to the finals.
One event that the Mavericks counted on to be a high scoring one is the men's 800 meters, and the preliminaries didn't do anything to change that. Idilio Campos ran a 1:52.54 for first. Ozie Hood was second and Heinz Schwartzkopf was seventh to give the Mavericks three runners in the 800 finals.
Fans can follow the results live at the following Web site:
http://www.flashresults.com/flashtexas/slcoutdoor08/
