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 In addition to qualifying for the finals as a part of the WCU 4x100-meter relay team, senior Raquel Ramseur also moved on in the 400-meter dash. |
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May 31, 2008
Tallahassee, Fla. - Western Carolina's men's and women's 4x100-meter relay teams established school records Friday as the Catamounts advanced both squads and three individuals to the finals at the 2008 NCAA East Regional at the Mike Long Track. In addition to the finals on Saturday, WCU junior Daniel Joseph will open competition in the triple jump in the second flight with the top nine advancing to the finals with both WCU 4x400-meter relay squads will be in action.
The men's squad of senior Zeb Johnson, junior Manteo Mitchell and sophomores Christian Bethune and Dominic Young posted the second-quickest time at the meet, but will enter Saturday's finals as the top-rated squad as the Clemson Tigers were disqualified after passing the baton outside of one of zone two. The Catamounts turned a hot lap and school-record of 39.64 in the 400-meter relay ahead of second-place South Carolina and the host Florida State Seminoles in third.
On the women's side, with the four heat winners and the next four quickest times advancing to the finals, Western Carolina finished second with the seventh-best time in the region just behind the Florida Gators in their heat, who turned in the second-best time on the day. The Catamount foursome of seniors Tangelia Johnson and Raquel Ramseur, and freshmen Janet Carothers and Felicia Paulding set a school record by passing the baton in an all-time best 44.95 seconds to advance to the finals, only eight-tenths of a second off the top time of 44.11 set by South Carolina.
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Although he finished third in his heat, Zeb Johnson qualified for the finals in the men's 200-meter dash after running the fourth-best time of the season at 20.97. He finished just 0.17 seconds behind FSU All-American Walter Dix and was eighth in the preliminaries to move to the finals.
In additional individual competition, Young finished third in his heat and 14th in the region in the men's 100-meter dash preliminaries with a personal-best time of 10.46, three-one hundreths of a second quicker than WCU's top time this season
Sophomore Matt Evans finished tied for 10th with seven others after clearing a height of 6-9 in the men's high jump competition. He will remain in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA National Championship by virtue of finishing inside the top 12 of the event.
Evans finished two places ahead of teammate, David Bowles, in the men's javelin with a throw of 58.79 meters (192-10) while Bowles unfurled a toss of 58.58 meters (192-2).
Also in women's competition on Friday, junior Tara Tounzen finished eighth in her flight and 28th overall in the javelin throw with a mark of 36.80 meters, her fourth-best of the season. Senior Tangelia Johnson finished fifth in her heat and 22nd overall in the region in the open 100-meter dash with a time of 11.97 while junior Rashanda Simmons finished 30th in the region in the women's 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.91.
Senior Kerrie Savery, who posted the top five times for WCU this season in the 800-meter run turned in a time of 2:17.24 to finish 31st overall. Freshman Felicia Paulding finished fourth in her heat and 22nd in the preliminaries in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.32.
Results can be found by visiting www.TrackShark.com or live scoring of the meet at http://www.halfmiletiming.com/Datafiles/Spring2008/NCAAEast08/Results.
