March 31, 2007
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's and women's track and field teams competed on the road for the first time during the outdoor season, participating in the Yellow Jacket Invitational hosted by Georgia Tech. The Tigers won three events while recording new or improved regional qualifying marks in four events.
"I'm happy with how we performed," said head coach Ralph Spry. "We're just two weeks out of the indoor championships and we've been giving some of our key people some rest before we start getting serious for the outdoor season next weekend. We just wanted to run some kids in some different races and get some good workouts in. We've been training pretty hard and we're right on track for where we want to be."
For the second weekend in a row, Tracy Ann Rowe won the women's 200m dash, this time with a time of 23.29 seconds, which was just .01 seconds behind her winning time from last Saturday's Springtime Invitational.
Amelia Anderson won the 400m hurdles with a provisional qualifying time of 1:00.73. Jasmine Johnson, who edged Anderson in the Springtime Invitational, this time finished third with a time of 1:01.28.
The women's 4x100m relay team of Danielle Gilchrist, Shaquela Williams, Rowe and Kerron Stewart raced to a first-place time of 44.72, which was a regional qualifying mark but not as quick as their mark of 44.33 from the Springtime Invitational.
Michelle Vaughn met the regional qualifying mark in the triple jump in her first jumping competition of the season, finishing fourth overall and first among collegians with a leap of 12.69m (41-7.75).
Danielle Gilchrist improved on her regional qualifying time in the women's 100m hurdles, finishing fourth with a time of 13.76, which ranks her eighth in Auburn history.
Michelle Williamson finished second in the high jump, leaping 1.75m (5-8.75) for the second Saturday in a row.
In the men's 110m hurdles, Ty Akins was third overall but first among collegians, improving his regional qualifying time with a mark of 13.96 seconds.
Felix Kiboiywo placed third in the men's 800m, clocking a time of 1:49.84, which is a regional qualifying mark but just off his time of 1:49.37 from last weekend.
In the women's 800m, Sabrina Fischer was third with a time of 2:13.33, while Jessica Smith was ninth in 2:18.36.
Drew Lovette was fourth in the pole vault (4.60m, 15-1) and Joey Giattino was sixth in the men's 1500m with a time of 3:51.66.
The Tigers will return to action next Friday and Saturday, April 6-7, when Auburn hosts the Tiger Track Classic at Hutsell-Rosen Track.