April 20, 2008
Results
PRINCETON, N.J. - Freshman sprinter Janica Austin shaved .20 off her personal-best in the 100-meter hurdles to win the event with a time of 13.89 at the Larry Ellis Invitational, hosted by Princeton, on Saturday. The Trenton, N.J. native set a new Lafayette record and qualified for the NCAA Regionals in Tallahasse, Fla. on May 30-31.
Austin also took first-place in the 400-meter hurdles (1:00.89) to qualify for ECACs. She recorded the third-fastest time in school history, narrowly missing the NCAA qualifying mark by .07. Austin also ran the second leg of the women's 4x100 relay that bettered their ECAC qualifying mark with a 47.58 fourth-place finish. Kisha Thomas, Jessica Buzzell and Asia Hollis rounded out the 4x100 team that ran the second-fastest time in school history.
Hollis also had a productive day in Princeton, finishing third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.12 to qualify for ECACs and record the second-fastest time in Lafayette history. She also became the second-fastest woman at Lafayette in the 200-meter dash, where she came in 10th with a time of 25.07.
On the men's side, sophomore Brant Hammer ran a personal-best in the 100-meters to qualify for IC4As with a ninth-place finish of 10.83. He leads the Patriot League and has the second-fastest time in school history. Hammer also came in 14th in the 200-meters (22.18) and was the anchor in the men's 4x100 relay that bettered its IC4A time. Bradley Williams, Kyle Clayton and Adam Ballester joined Hammer to run the second-best time in school history.
Senior Alex Wechsler represented the Leopards in the middle-distance events where his time of 3:51.66 in the 1,500-meters on Friday gave him a 23rd-place finish and qualified him for IC4As. Sophomores Rob Blum and Sean Casey recorded P.R.s in the 800 meters, finishing 28th (1:54.11) and 33rd (1:54.63), respectively. Aaron Buchman rounded out the field with a 37th-place time of 1:57.11.
In the throws, senior Ashley Harbin won the hammer event, bettering her ECAC and NCAA qualifying marks with a distance of 196' 5". Andrea Cerbie finished seventh, hitting the ECAC mark for a third time this season, with a throw of 161' 1", while Vicky Melroy threw a personal-best 159' 8" to better her ECAC-qualifying mark and come in ninth. Elizabeth Graybill (137' 11") and Kelsey Slater (102' 1") also recorded personal records to finish 16th and 22nd, respectively.
Senior Pamela Glennon led the Leopards in the shot put, coming in seventh with a throw of 42' 7½". Cerbie placed 14th (37' 10½") and Melroy took 15th place (37' 5¼") to complete the field.
Several members of the men's track and field team traveled to nearby Moravian to compete in the Greyhound Invitational. Freshman Kevin Lees took sixth in the high jump, leaping 6'2", while junior Matt Shaia finished eighth with a jump of 6'0".
In the throws, junior Sean McAuley launched the discus a distance of 147' 11" for a fifth-place finish and freshman Matt Crystal took eighth with a throw of 136' 5". The two Leopards also competed in the hammer, where McAuley had an eighth place finish (144' 11") and Crystal came in 10th (134' 9").
Lafayette competes next at the Penn Relays on April 24 - 26 at the historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
