Feb. 3, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Kerron Stewart competed for the first time this season in two events and automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in both Saturday at the Indiana Relays. Stewart replaced her 60-meter provisional time of 7.41 from Friday with a semi-final provisional of 7.37. She then improved on that time as well, posting a 7.27 event-winning automatic qualifier in the finals. In the 200m invitational, Stewart ran a 23.25 to automatically qualify and win the event.
Both of Stewart's automatic times are the second fastest in the nation this year.
"Today was Kerron's first meet to run her events and she did outstanding," Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said. "Getting her off to a good start is big for us."
The other event winner for the women was Michelle Vaughn, who jumped 12.9m (42-4) to win the triple jump. That mark is a provisional qualifier, but Vaughn has already jumped 13.23m (43-5) this year.
For the men, Ty Akins won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.80, which is a provisional qualifying time and the sixth-fastest time in the nation this season.
"Our men's team doesn't have a lot of depth, but the quality of our talent is very high, Spry said. "Ty is a big piece of the puzzle, so it was good to get him going."
The other men's winner was Cory Martin in the weight throw with a toss of 22.93m (75-2). That throw would be an automatic qualifier had Martin not already bettered it this season.
Auburn also had four runner-up finishes Saturday. Danielle Gilchrist ran an 8.47 in the 60-meter hurdles to finish second, while Tracy Ann Rowe was .7 seconds behind Stewart in the 200m invitational to take second in that event. Jacob Dunkleberger followed up his automatic-qualifying throw of 21.6m (70-10) from Friday with a 21.19m throw (69-6) to finish second behind Martin in the weight throw, and Mark Johnson was 1.5 inches shy of a provisional qualifier in the pole vault with a mark of 6.16m, which earned him a runner-up finish.
Auburn will look to add to its qualifier list next weekend at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. The two-day meet begins Feb 9th with field events at 10 a.m.