Both of the Washington University men’s and women’s track and field teams turned in great performances at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Northfield, Minn. on March 10 and 11. The women’s team performed well enough to garner a 31st-place overall finish out of the 50 qualifying squads, while the men’s team placed 32nd. Those finishes capped off a highly successful indoor schedule, which saw both teams finish first at the University Athletic Association (UAA) meet.

Although the teams as a whole did not come out in the top slots in the nation, the highlights for the University came on the heels of exceptional individual performances in the field portion of the event. In the end, four Bears earned All-American accolades.

“Obviously, we are awfully excited for all five athletes who qualified for the NCAA meet, and we are absolutely delighted for the four All-Americans,” said head coach Paul Thornton. “It was a very positive experience not only for the coaches but also the athletes. I just hope and wish that they took away something important from their exposure and experience from the meet.”

The Bears started out the NCAA Championships strong as two athletes earned All-American honors upon the basis of their performances on March 10. Junior Delaina Martin was the first Bear athlete to do so, finishing fourth overall in the weight throw. Martin, who had set the school record in the event just a week before, turned in the best performance of her career with a throw of 17.52 meters.

“Making the final was great for Delaina,” said Thornton. “She knew she could throw better than what she did in the prelims. On her fifth attempt in the final, she had her breakthrough throw of the season. To finish in the top four at the NCAA Championships is a huge accomplishment.”

On the men’s side, junior Cameron Williams finished in a tie for fourth place in the high jump. Although Williams missed the starting height of 1.92 meters on his first two attempts, he was able to clear the bar on his third attempt. Williams was then able to successfully make the next two heights en route to his high finish and All-American honors.

“Cameron got off to a shaky start,” Thornton said. “Once he cleared the first height, it took some pressure off his shoulders. He cleared the next two heights easily. Cameron proved that jumping 2.03 meters last weekend was no fluke.”

Still, Williams was very happy with his performance at Nationals.

“It was all just a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m not quite sure how I did it, but I was really excited about it all. When I was going into it I was just trying to think as little as possible about what I had to do. I just tried to keep my mind clear and do it.”

On the second day of NCAA Championship competition, senior Karl Zelik became the third Bear athlete to earn All-American honors with his performance in the triple jump. Zelik’s jump of 13.98 meters was good enough for eighth place in the event and earned the Bears crucial points for the overall standings.

Sophomore Morgen Leonard-Fleckman became the fourth Bears athlete to garner All-American honors with her outstanding performance in the pole vault. Leonard-Fleckman cleared a height of 3.45 meters, which proved to be good enough for an eighth-place finish.

In the women’s triple jump, sophomore Danielle Wadlington narrowly missed out on being named an All-American performer. Wadlington’s leap of 11.14 meters earned her an 11th place finish, putting her barely out of contention for the All-American honor.

“Any time you come home with four All-Americans, and very close to a fifth one, you have to be happy. It was great to have four student-athletes on the award stand representing Washington University,” said Thornton.

“Probably the best part of it all was watching everyone [other teammates] perform so well. It was great just watching and enjoying and cheering along with everyone else on the second day,” added Williams.

The team will undoubtedly look to build upon its outstanding individual accomplishments and try to achieve higher respective team finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in late May. Momentum will be a critical aspect to outdoor season success.

“I hope that we are able to take the momentum from the athletes’ performances in both the NCAA and UAA Championships and their success at the highest levels of track and field to the rest of the year,” said Thornton. “We hope that the leaders will be able to step up and believe that they can reach their goal.”

“We definitely have a lot of momentum going into the outdoor season,” said Waddlington. “We went into Nationals with momentum from the conference meet and now we’ll do that much better in the outdoors. The momentum will push us to work harder and motivate us to do ever better.”

“Our greatest challenge [for the rest of the season] is to take our success and bring it to the upcoming year. We need to take the things we already do well and make them better. Our only opponent is ourselves,” said Thornton.

With their strong performance at the NCAA Championships still fresh in their minds, the Bears will begin their outdoor season this Friday evening at the Washington University Mini Twilight Meet.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.