Feb. 26, 2006
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The Auburn women's track and field team fell just short of winning its first ever SEC title, finishing second at the SEC Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Florida. The sixth-ranked Tigers finished with 96 points, placing second behind surprising Georgia, as the 13th-ranked Bulldogs won the team title with 101.5 points. Auburn did finish ahead of fourth-ranked South Carolina and No. 5 LSU. Meanwhile, the Auburn men finished in eighth place with 38 points.
For the Auburn women, it matched the best finish in school history. Auburn finished second in 1996, and had not placed higher than fifth since finishing third in 1997. The men, however, finished lower than fifth for the first time since 2002.
Junior Kerron Stewart was the star of the women's meet, winning the Comissioner's Trophy by scoring the most points of any female athlete. Stewart became just the third indoor double winner in Auburn history, winning the 55m and the 200m, while running a leg on the second-place 4x400m relay team. Stewart joined Lacena Golding (1998), who won the 55m hurdles and the long jump, and Elva Goulbourne (2003), who won the 55m dash and the long jump, as double winners in Auburn women's history.
"We knew coming in the women's race was going to be one of the closest races in a while," said head coach Ralph Spry. "I felt we were capable of winning. We were in a great position until the end, but there were just a couple of events that didn't pan out and we didn't get some help from some other teams when we needed it. I'm really proud of how our team stepped up and I'm pleased with our finish. We'll take this and move on to the NCAAs.
"As for the men, we knew we were thin in depth. We were solid but not as good as we should have been. We'll just have to regroup and get the team ready for the rest of the year, and getting some guys back from injury will help."
Stewart entered the 55m ranked seventh in the SEC, but she surprised the field by winning the event in a photo finish in 6.71 seconds, an NCAA automatic qualifying mark that broke the school record of 6.73 seconds set by Elva Goulbourne in 2003. Stewart nipped South Carolina's Amberly Nesbitt, who was second in 6.72 seconds, and LSU's Kelly Baptiste, who placed third with a time of 6.73. Auburn sprinters have now won three of the past four 55/60m dashes at the SEC indoor meet, as Fana Ashby was last year's champion and Goulbourne won in 2003.
"I came in here, not ranked, not noticed and probably overlooked by my competition," said Stewart after the 55m. "But I work hard with my coaches, I train hard every day, I listen to what my coaches tell me and today I came in here and did what they told me to do. I feel great right now."
Later in the day, Stewart came back to win the 200m, posting a time of 23.11 seconds. Stewart was the winner of the second heat, and her time edged the winner of the first heat - South Carolina's Shalonda Solomon, who has the fastest time in the NCAA this year but finished second in 23.15 seconds.
"First of all, I would like to thank God, because without him I could not have done this," said Stewart following the 200m. "It's a great feeling, but I knew I could do it. I just thank God for the strength, and I thank my coach for everything, and my family as well for supporting me. It's a good feeling to be able to get points for my team, because I want us to win so bad."
Stewart completed her day by running the third leg of the 4x400m relay, helping Auburn finish a close second behind national leader LSU, which won the event with a time of 3:33.40. Auburn's team of senior Josanne Lucas, senior Tamara Thomas, Stewart and senior Markita James was second in 3:33.58.
Freshman Michelle Vaughn gave Auburn a sweep of the horizontal jumps, finishing first with a mark of 13.15m (43-1.75), making up for a disappointing finish (13th) in yesterday's long jump. Senior Jovanee Jarrett, who won yesterday's long jump crown, had a season-best mark of 12.91m (42-4.25) to finish fourth. Vaughn became Auburn's fourth triple jump champion at the last five SEC indoor meets, following Jarrett (2005) and Shelly-Ann Gallimore (2002, 2004).
"The competition went back and forth, but I had to stay focused and do what I had to do," said Vaughn. "Yesterday I had a little bit of a setback, so I knew today I had to be perfect. It was hard to stay in the center of the runway because of the bumps, so you have to use your technique and adjust."
Markita James finished second in the 400m, posting a time of 52.76 and winning the second of two heats, but Patricia Hall of Tennessee, the NCAA's top-ranked quarter-miler, posted a slightly better time of 52.67 while winning the first heat to claim individual honors.
Senior Angela Homan was also a runner-up for Auburn, following up yesterday's third-place showing in the 3,000m by placing second in the 5,000m with a time of 16:15.58, eclipsing her previous best by nearly 12 seconds while posting the second-best time in school history.
Josanne Lucas placed third in the 55m hurdles for the second year in a row at the SEC indoor meet, posting a time of 7.65 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second behind her qualifying time from yesterday. Lucas entered the meet ranked fourth in the SEC.
In the high hump, junior Michelle Williamson placed third by clearing 1.75m (5-8.75), matching her career best and earning Auburn 5.5 points. In the women's weight throw, senior Ronda Gullatte placed fourth with a personal-best and provisional qualifying mark of 19.91m (65-4), clipping her previous best by .01 and earning Auburn five more points.
For the men, the highlight Sunday came in the 55m hurdles, where sophomore Ty Akins finished second with a personal-best time of 7.25 seconds, which ties for fifth best in Auburn indoor history and improved his previous NCAA provisional qualifying time. Akins was edged by defending champion Aries Merritt of Tennessee by just .04 seconds for first place. Also in that race, freshman Tavaris Washington, who ran a personal-best time of 7.32 yesterday, stumbled over the last hurdle but managed to finish seventh in 7.46 seconds.
Auburn also had a pair of point scorers in the men's shot put, led by junior Jacob Dunkleberger, who placed fourth with a personal-best mark of 18.18m (59-7.75), improving his provisional qualifying mark. Junior Cory Martin, who entered the competition with the best mark in the SEC and won Saturday's weight throw, had a disappointing showing, finishing eighth with a throw of 17.18m (56-4.5).
Sophomore Reuben McCoy placed fifth in the 400m dash with a time of 47.61 seconds. McCoy, who was sixth in Saturday's semifinals, earned four points with his fifth-place performance. Senior Andrew Heath finished in sixth place in the men's 5,000m, recording a time of 14:13.18. Heath entered the event seeded seventh.
The men's distance medley relay team of Josh Pawlik, Alex Amodeo, Clay Askew and Jordan Davis finished seventh with a time of 10:06.12, while the 4x400m relay team of Ty Akins, Tavaris Washington, Aharon Conerly and Reuben McCoy was eighth in 3:15.18.
Following Georgia and Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina tied for third in the women's meet with 78.5 points, followed by Arkansas (73), Alabama (70.5), LSU (62.5), Florida (45.5), Kentucky (26), Ole Miss (16), Mississippi State (13) and Vanderbilt (2). Arkansas won the men's title with 141 points, followed by Tenessee (106), Florida (100), LSU (77), South Carolina (63.5), Georgia (48.5), Alabama (43), Auburn (38), Ole Miss (25) and Kentucky (21).
Selected Auburn athletes will compete next weekend at a last chance qualifier at either Florida or Iowa State, before the Tigers will participate in the NCAA Indoor Championships March 10-11 in Fayetteville, Ark.