Syracuse University
UNC Invitational
SU Sprints Back at it Again in Carolina
4/11/2009 10:46:20 PM | Track and Field
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The track & field team flashed its speed and agility at the UNC Invitational on Saturday as the Orange sported seven top-three finishes, including three first first-place performances at Belk Track and Feltzer Field.
Sophomore Flings Owusu-Agyapong and senior Michael LeBlanc each motored past the field in their respective 100-meter dash races while junior Lorraine Hill claimed her second crown of the outdoor season in the javelin throw event.
Owusu-Agyapong, who owned the highest seeding coming into Saturday's challenge, lived up to the billing as she cranked out an NCAA-Regional qualifying time of 11.66 for the victory.
LeBlanc, also tabbed as the No. 1 seed in the men's 100-meter dash, maintained top status with an IC4A-qualifiying clip of 10.60. The Riverview, New Brunswick native missed out on the NCAA Regional by a spilt half second.
Hill's heave of 43.05m topped 14 other competitors in the javelin for the top spot, as she earned herself a bid to the ECAC Championship with her winning mark. Hill smashed her winning toss of 38.70m to claim the Florida State Relays in the outdoor opener two weeks ago.
Senior Bernard Bush had a big day for Syracuse, chipping in two second-place showings on Saturday. Bush eclipsed the NCAA-Regional standard with a second-place spring of 7.40m in the long jump and met BIG EAST criteria with a mark of 14.42m in the triple jump.
Senior Lauren McClenney and junior Uhunoma Osazuwa comprised the remaining top three performances. McClenney tallied a third-place time of 56.29 in the 400-meter dash while Osazuwa notched a berth to the ECAC Championship with her third-place vault of 1.70m in the long jump.
Turning back to the 100-meter dash, sophomore Lareea Chisolm carved out a BIG EAST-qualifying time of 12.16 for sixth place time. Owusu-Agyapong and Chisolm grabbed seventh and ninth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash with ECAC-eligible marks of 24.58 and 24.70, in that order, while Osazuwa concluded the 200-meter in 25.56 for 17th. Freshman Illarraza Priscilla completed half the track in 27.63 for 25th.
In the women's field events, junior Melissa Romero obtained seventh in the high jump with a leap of 1.65m while Ilarraza took down 13th after clearing 1.60m.
Osazwua missed out on hitting the BIG EAST-qualifying standard by one one-hundredth of a meter in the long jump with a spring of 5.59m for sixth.
Following up with LeBlanc's victory in the 100-meter dash, sophomore Sham Lewis turned out a fourth-place, IC4A-qualifying time of 10.73 while senior Antoine Clark finished right behind in fifth with another IC4A mark of 10.74.
The Orange men submitted five names into the 200-meter hat as LeBlanc emerged to the fore out of that group. LeBlanc cleared a BIG EAST mark of 21.84 for sixth place while senior Terry Marshall snagged seventh with another conference-adequate time of 21.89. Lewis' BIG EAST-eligible clip of 22.08 was good enough for 10th. Clark was slotted in 14th after turning in a time of 22.27 while newcomer Matthew Callanan finished up in 28th with a time of 22.98.
Callanan put on a nice run in the 110-meter hurdles with an eighth-place, BIG EAST eligible showing of 15.09. Senior Mike Chitro and junior Eric Cleckner, two of SU's more versatile athletes, picked up 11th and 15th, respectively, with times of 15.40 and 16.36.
Aside from Bush's second-place act, sophomore Victor Nwosu landed in seventh with a leap of 6.69m in the long jump.
Sophomore Kwaku Boah bested 11 other hurlers with a BIG EAST-qualifying lob of 15.54m for fifth place. Chitro took home 14th with a toss of 11.27m while junior Jon Buice's pitch of 11.10m was good enough for 15th.
Chitro, SU's lone competitor in the discus throw, claimed eighth with toss of 42.41m. Chitro's lob entitled him to a spot in the BIG EAST Outdoor Championship.
Boah attained eighth in the hammer throw with a heave of 46.14m while Cleckner's launch of 45.48m in the javelin toss secured an 11th place mark. Buice earned 12th in the javelin throw after clearing 43.99m.
The Orange splits up next weekend and returns to Princeton, N.J. for the Princeton Larry Ellis Invitational on April 17-18 while the other half while compete at the Cortland Classic on the same days.
