Feb. 3, 2003

Johnson City, Tenn. - The Western Carolina University men's and women's track and field teams returned to Cullowhee with one individual champion and 24 individual top 10 finishers at the East Tennessee State Indoor Track and Field Invitational over the weekend.

Catamount sophomore Laura Tieszen finished as the champion of the women's pole vault at a height of 12'5.5", her best mark ever in Indoor competition. Michelle Velez placed second at 11'9.75" and Dana Anglin and Tricia Shepard finished in the top eight as well at 11'5.75" and 10', respectively.

Wrapping up the women's field events, senior Cedea Bowden finished seventh in the triple jump at a distance of 38'4.75". Kineta Rogers placed third in the shot put at 42'1.5" and fourth in the weight throw at 49'11".

In the women's one mile run, Deanna Kulesz finished sixth with a time of 5:17.06 and in the 800 meter run Tonya Edmonds came in fifth at a time of 2:21.89 after running it in 2:19.77 in the preliminaries. Melanie Cooper finished fifth in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 10:39.55 and Whitney Woods finished ninth in the event at 11:16.17. The WCU 4x400 meter relay team of Leslie Martin, Cedea Bowden, Michelle Velez and Ashelyn Little came in third with a time of 3:53.84.

In the men's events, Caleb Bailey broke the WCU school record in the 800 meter run twice, previously set by Bailey at the 2002 Florida Fast Times. His new time of 1:50.72 was good for a second place finish at ETSU in the finals after first breaking the record during preliminaries in 1:51.67, while teammate John Robertson came in fifth in the event at 1:54.30 after coming in at 1:53.04 in preliminary runs. (Interesting to note that the runner that beat Bailey in the race was on the Kenyan Olympic Team last year and ran the 800 meter in the 16th fastest time in the world in 2002.) Darius Bryson finished sixth in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.12 seconds, while Adam Puett gave a good effort in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 8:41.33, good for second place. Ben Watkins and Jesse Norman finished in fourth and sixth, respectively, in the event at 8:43.32 and 8:52.51. The men's 4x400 meter relay team of Charleton Grant, Caleb Bailey, John Robertson and Milton Bolton came in fifth at a time of 3:16.50.

In the field events, sophomore Sean Heaton came in eighth in the pole vault with a vault of 14'1.25", while Justin Davis placed sixth in the long jump at a distance of 23'0.5". Davis also finished the triple jump in ninth place at 45'2.25", while Tyler Ferguson placed 10th for the Cats at 44'9.5". In the shot put, Jeb Hall came in fifth with a throw of 47'8" and David Boyce placed sixth at 47'4.25". Nick McNeil placed third in the weight throw at a distance of 50'11.5" and Jason Stepp came in fourth at 49'5".

The Catamounts are currently preparing for the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., which begins on Friday, Feb. 7.

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