Women's T&F 4x100m Clocks Nation's Ninth-Best Time At Penn Relays; Stockbarger Leads No. 9 M
Saturday, April 29, 2006 | General
The University of Florida women's track and field relay team of sophomore All-American Lakecia Ealey (Albany, Ga.), senior All-American Nadine Palmer (Manchester, Jamaica), junior Dominique McLeggan (Weston, Fla.) and sophomore All-American Natalie Knight (Snellville, Ga.) posted the eighth-fastest time in school history in leading the Gators at the Penn Relays, while sophomore Wes Stockbarger (Port Charlotte, Fla.) posted his 10th straight regional qualifying mark of the season to lead the men's squad at the Drake Relays on Friday.
The women's 4x100m improved on their NCAA East Regional qualifying time of 44.90 set two weeks ago in at the UTEP Invitational after Knight crossed the finish line at the 44.27 mark Friday out of lane two en route to their seventh-place finish in the field. It is the nation's ninth-best time and currently ranks third in the East Region.
“I'm very proud of our athletes on the 4x100m relay team. To earn that big of an improvement from 44.90 to 44.27 on lane two of this track with all the tight turns is impressive,” UF women's head coach Tom Jones said. “To start at lane two meant that we were starting off in third place and immediately running into a turn. If we could have run a little faster yesterday in the trials, we maybe could have gotten a better lane today and may have been able to run in under 44 seconds flat. At the same time, to get a time like we did today in this lane was phenomenal. I couldn't be prouder of this group.”
Sophomore Wes Stockbarger (Port Charlotte, Fla.) extended his streak of reaching an NCAA regional qualifying mark to 10 by accomplishing the feat in the shot put, while UF's 4x200m relay of sophomore All-American Bernard Middleton (Jacksonville, Fla.), senior All-American Sekou Clarke (Kingston, Jamaica), freshman All-American Chris Gilchrist (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and freshman All-American Willie Perry (Lenoir, N.C.) claimed a victory. In addition, UF's 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay both qualified for finals on Saturday.
The women's 4x200m relay tandem of Ealey, Knight, McLeggan and sophomore All-American Kia Raf (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) recorded the day's eighth-fastest time to qualify for Saturday's championship finals. In addition, junior Candace Cabey (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) recorded a qualifying mark in the triple jump for the third time this season.
Raf anchored the 4x200m relay team and crossed the finish line in 1:35.20 en route to qualifying the group for the finals Saturday. Their time was only nine tenths of a second off the pace of the 10th-fastest clocking in UF history. Cabey's wind-aided jump of 12.63m/41-5.25 placed her sixth in the collegiate triple jump field.
“Candace had a solid mark today, and we had a couple of athletes who are battling colds and are a bit under the weather,” Jones said. “We have had some solid improvement here at the Penn Relays, and we will look to keep up the momentum tomorrow.”
For the men, Stockbarger had the most impressive performance for the Gators on Friday as he finished fifth in the shot put with a regional mark of 17.75m/58-3. The throw was the third-best of his career and 1-5.25 away from his personal best.
The 4x200m relay clocked a time of 1:23.48 to pick up Florida's first relay victory of the outdoor season. The Gators out-ran Illinois for the Drake Relays crown as the Illini came in second in 1:23.82.
Florida's 4x1600m relay missed setting the school record by less than two seconds and took seventh. The foursome of senior All-American Daniel Parker (Orlando, Fla.), sophomore Jeremy Miller (West Palm Beach, Fla.), senior All-American Shane Stroup (Highland, Md.) and sophomore Ryder Leary (Yulee, Fla.) clocked a time of 16:40.08.
The 4x400m relay of Middleton, Clarke, freshman Afolabi Aromire (Springdale, Md.) and Gilchrist won their heat and clocked the sixth-best time of the day (3:11.16).
UF's 4x100m relay of Middleton, Clarke, Gilchrist and Perry claimed the final spot in Saturday's final after taking third in their heat and eighth overall with a mark of 40.96.
Both teams will complete competition on Saturday. Live results from the Penn Relays can be found online at www.pennathletics.com, while results from the Drake Relays are available at www.drakerelays.org.
