Monday, May 12, 2003

Men's and Women's Track and Field teams finish in eighth and third place

he FIU men's and women's track and field teams finish in eighth and third place, respectively, at the Sun Belt Conference Championships in Denton, TX.

Western Kentucky won the men's side with 171 points and the North Texas women earned 179.66 points to claim the championship.

The Golden Panther women ended with 96.83 points on the strength of Linda Loussaint and Michelle Lennox winning the high jump and pole vault events on Saturday.

The running events saw FIU earn 64 points. Three different Golden Panthers had second-place finishes, with Vronique Wilson claiming second place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.76.

Also in second was Anita Edwards in the 400-meters at 54.56 and Ranada Daniels in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:01.31.

The women's 4x100-meter relay team of Alexia Dean, Edwards, Wilson and Sonii McBride claimed the second spot with a time of 45.61.

Linda Loussaint continued her impressive weekend with a runner-up finish in the triple jump, clearing 40-feet-02.75 inches.

The men's side ended with 41 points. Yandiel Muniz broke the FIU high-jump record of 6-feet-08 inches to claim the top spot.

Jarod Mills also led FIU in the field events with a third-place showing in the hammer throw (145-feet-01 inch), a fifth in the discus (160-feet-00 inches) and seventh in the shot put (45-feet-11.75 inches).

In the track events, Eduardo Rodriguez earned third place in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:12.93.

The 4x100 and 4x400-meter relay teams both finished in fifth place with times of 41.94 and 3:20.46.

The Golden Panthers now head to the Georgia Tech Invitational on Friday and Saturday. It will be the last chance for any player to make the NCAA Regionals who haven't made it already.