Shermaine Williams won MVP honors for the running events, tallying 27 points
Results
Hampton, VA – The Johnson C. Smith University women's indoor track and field team took home second place with 87 team points in the 2010 CIAA Indoor Championships hosted at the Boo Williams Sportsplex. St. Augustine's College finished first with 124 team points.
Women - Team Rankings - 12 Events Scored
=============================================================================
1) St. Augustine's - 124
2) Johnson C. Smith - 87
3) Bowie State - 78
4) Virginia State - 44
5) Virginia Union - 18
6) Livingstone - 12
7) St. Paul's College - 3
JCSU continues their march towards becoming one of the elite in the conference. Including this year, the team has improved their performance each of the past three seasons. In 2009, the Lady Golden Bulls finished fourth, so earning second place this season is a huge improvement.
On the women's side, junior Shermaine Williams landed MVP honors for the running events, posting 27 points. In the field events, Andrea Powell of St. Augutine's took top honors with 18 points.
The Lady Golden Bulls were dominant in the 60m events. In the 60m dash, the quartet of Williams (7.55), sophomore Rosemarie Carty (7.60), sophomore Monique Kelly (7.72) and junior Lakaevia Tyler (7.74) were among the six finalists. All achieved personal bests in the event and finished in second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. More impressively all were faster than the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 7.75 seconds.
The team maintained superiority in the 60m hurdles, where JCSU finished in first, second, third, and ninth. Williams ran a Division II national leading time 8.01 (SB), Carty had a nationally third ranked time of 8.36 (PB), while junior Nikki Boston timed in at 8.74 (nationally ranking of 9th) and Tyler clocked a 9.27 (PB).
Earlier in the day the quartet of senior Jesseca Gray, sophomore Montavia Hawkins, freshman Quanisha Miller and sophomore Nada Al-Arahshun placed fourth in the Distance Medley Relay with a time of 15:14.91. Freshman Xahnn-Georgia Reid placed sixth in the 400m in 60.26. Miller (65.46, PB), Gray (66.06, SB) and Hawkins (67.13, SB) completed the JCSU participants in the event.
Al-Arahshun competed in the 800m and one mile events placing 11th in both events. In the 200m event Williams (24.78, SB), Tyler (25.47, PB), Carty (25.51, SB) and Kelly (25.84, PB) placed third, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
J.C. Smith had a magnificent showing in the field events. Sophomore Marcia Higgins (11.81m , SB) and Boston 10.28m contested the Shot Put placing sixth and ninth, respectively. Reid (1.62m, PB) and Boston (1.53m, PB) finished second and fourth in the high jump, respectively. The trio of Boston (5.41m, PB), Kelly (5.32m, PB) and Reid (5.13m) were good enough for third, fifth, and seventh, respectively.
“It is a very difficult task to have eleven members competing against top teams, which have double the participants on their teams, said JCSU head coach Lennox Graham. “It is a continuous struggle in meeting our numbers for NCAA compliance outdoors (14 required), but our young women keep stepping up to the plate and performing excellent fashion. I give all the credit to the ladies and the help of my assistant coach Larry Moore, who continues to improve the throwing events.”
The day was completed by a splendid second place performance by the 4x400m team of Boston, Williams, Carty and Tyler. The team finished in a season best 3:58.45 seconds. After a brilliant team performance, the Lady Golden Bulls will next participate in the Virginia Tech Challenge in Blacksburg, VA on February 19-20, 2010.
