Feb. 9, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - After falling just short of a provisional time in three races last weekend, Auburn junior Tracy Ann Rowe posted a time of 7.33 in the 60-meter dash finals Friday at the Tyson Invitational to potentially earn a spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Her time places her ninth in the nation this year.
"Tracy ran her season-best and posted one of the better times in the country this season," Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said. "It was good to see her compete at this level."
For the men, junior Edis Elkasevic competed for the first time since 2005 in the shot put and posted a mark of 17.76m (58-3.25) to provisionally qualify in that event.
"This was Edis' first meet, and he has been working through some minor injuries," Spry said. "He has a couple of meets to work the kinks out and get back into rhythm. He will only improve in the weeks to come."
Rowe took fourth in the 60-meter dash and Elkasevic finished ninth in the shot put.
While two Tigers registered their first qualifying marks of the season, Cory Martin improved on an already-existing provisional mark, throwing the shot 18.56m (60-10.75) to improve his qualifying mark by 2.75 inches and take sixth place.
Two Tigers that have already qualified for nationals continued to impress in the 60-meter hurdles. Ty Akins was the better of the two in the prelims, crossing the finish line in 7.84 seconds to Shamar Sands' 7.92 seconds, but Sands posted a time of 7.74 in the finals and finished second, while Akins was clocked at 7.83 to finish fifth.
"Neither Ty nor Shamar ran his best race today," Spry said. "They both hit a few hurdles and still ran pretty good times. It's encouraging to see them be able to stay in the hunt nationally."
Freshman Danielle Gilchrist equaled her season-best time of 8.47 in the 60-meter hurdles finals to finish sixth, and sophomore Hailey Foster clocked his best time of the season in the 60-meter dash at 7.00.
The only other Auburn athletes to compete on Friday were Jacob Dunkleberger and Shaquela Williams. Dunkleberger took 13th in the shot put with a season-best mark of 16.61 (54-6), while Williams ran a 7.70 in the 60-meter dash prelims.
Saturday will be a big day for the men as Mark Johnson will look to post a high mark in the pole vault, and Cory Martin and Jake Dunkleberger will see stiff competition in the weight throw. Donald Thomas will also compete in the high jump, while Scott Novack and Simon Nyang will run the 800m.
The Auburn women will have four competitors in the 200m (Rowe, Williams, Gilchrist and Kerron Stewart) on Saturday. Sabrina Fischer will run the 800m, while Raevan Harris and Michelle Williamson will compete in the high jump. Michelle Vaughn will participate in the triple jump as well.
Saturday's action gets underway at 10 a.m. with the men's and women's high jump and the women's 3000m.