Stephen F. Austin
SLC Outdoor Championships
SFA Men and Women Take Early Leads at SLC Championships
5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 8, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks closed out the first day of the 2009 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a 35-19 lead over Nicholls State Friday at Fletcher Garner Track. The Lumberjacks currently hold a 30-20 lead over Northwestern State. SFA finishes the day with three individual titles and five All-SLC performances.
Junior thrower Frednisha Marshall got SFA out to a quick start Friday morning recording an individual title in the first event of the meet. Marshall, who enters as the favorite in two events, won the women's hammer throw with a mark of 176-2. Freshman Caitlyn Gaston just missed all-conference honors in the event with throw of 149-4 to finish fourth overall.
Marshall started the day with an individual title, and sophomore Amy Shackelford closed out the women's events with an individual title. Shackelford ran a strong 10,000-meter race recording a time of 36:07.56 to win the event. Freshman Stephanie Ganter recorded a second-place finish in the event (36:44.52), helping propel the Ladyjacks to an opening-day lead over Nicholls State.
Not to be outdone by the Ladyjacks, the SFA men also turned in a strong 10,000 meters. The Lumberjacks' Mitch Ownbey battled defending league champion Henry Rop for the top spot the whole race. Ownbey led for the majority of the race, but with about 275 meters remaining Rop took over the lead and looked to be heading for his second consecutive win. However, Ownbey setup the defending champion charging past him with 100 meters remaining, and he never looked back. Ownbey won the event with a time of 30:54.72. Sophomore Dennis Yeats just missed all-conference honors finishing fourth with a time of 31:26.00, while Xavier Rodriguez was sixth overall (32:24.59). Similar to the women's race, the Lumberjacks' finish in the 10K pushed them into the overall lead.
Junior Matt Langdon recorded an All-SLC honor in the first men's event of the meet. Langdon recorded an NCAA regional qualifying throw of 188-10 to finish second in the men's hammer throw.
The Ladyjacks have all three of their athletes in the top five of the heptathlon after the first day of action. Junior Tabitha Riley is currently third overall with a score of 3,001 points, while freshman Megan Harlan is fourth overall (2,909 points). The defending heptathlon champion, sophomore Ebbonye Johnson, is currently fifth overall with 2,581 points. Riley recorded strong finishes in the shot put and hurdles finishing second in both events, and posted a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash. Harlan won the women's shot put, while Johnson clocked a 25.69 to win the final heptathlon event of the day.
Freshman Andrew Plentl is fourth overall, only 16 points out of third place, heading into the final day of competition in the decathlon. Plentl posted top-five finishes in all but one event Friday, including a second-place finish in the high jump.
The Ladyjacks just missed placing two in the top eight of the women's javelin Friday evening. After a busy first day in the heptathlon, Harlan competed in the open javelin and finished seventh with a throw of 120-2. Sophomore Shabranttny Jolly finished ninth with her throw of 116-9, just missing eighth place. Sophomore Adam Wolfe added a fifth-place finish in the men's javelin. Wolfe recorded one his better throws of the season posting a 191-9 to score four points for the `Jacks.
The SFA track and field team returns to action Saturday morning with the final events of the decathlon and heptathlon. The multi events are slated to begin at 9 a.m., while the field events are set to get under way (1 p.m.) with the men's long jump. The track events are scheduled for a 5 p.m. start with the preliminaries of the women's 1,500 meters.
-SFA-
