Jan. 17, 2009
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Senior Raevan Harris and freshman Marcus Rowland both won individual events with sparkling performances to highlight Saturday's action for the Auburn track and field teams at the Kentucky Invitational. Harris set a new school record in the high jump and Rowland beat a first-class field to win the 60 meters in his collegiate debut.
The Tigers excelled against a field of teams that included six nationally-ranked women's teams and five nationally-ranked men's squads, as well as a host of other top-flight teams from the SEC and other conferences.
"All in all I'm happy with how we performed this weekend," said head coach Ralph Spry. "We just wanted to come in for our first meet and be competitive. I'm pleased with how we lined up and competed and got some NCAA qualifiers. It was a good start, and if we can keep it going from there it should be a good indoor season for us."
Harris automatically qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record leap of 1.89m (6-2.25) to win the competition by five inches over her nearest competitor. Her jump broke the school mark of 6-2 set by Sissy Costner in 1990 and was the best mark by an Auburn woman indoors or outdoors in school history. She was perfect on all of her attempts throughout the competition until her winning height, missing once at 1.89m before clearing the bar on her second attempt.
Rowland had a dazzling debut for Auburn, blazing to a winning time of 6.66 seconds in the 60-meter dash to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships. He overcame a slow start to beat six-time All-American Evander Wells of Tennessee who finished second. Rowland's time ranks him third in Auburn history in the 60 meters, behind only former Olympians Coby Miller and Marc Burns.
Auburn's Joanna Atkins also had a strong meet, finishing second overall and first among collegians in the 200 meters with a time of 23.78, which is also an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Her time ranks seventh in school indoor history, giving her top-10 times at Auburn in three indoor events (60m, 400m). Freshman CeCe Williams was sixth in the 200m for Auburn with a time of 24.40, while Shaquela Williams was 13th (24.74).
Atkins was also sixth in the 60-meter dash and third among collegians with a time of 7.49, improving her personal best from last season by .02 seconds which ranks eighth in school history.
Junior Eric Werskey placed eighth in the men's shot put with a mark of 17.25m (56-7.25), while junior Danielle Gilchrist reached the finals of the women's 60m hurdles, where she finished 11th with a time of 8.66.
The men's 4x400-meter relay team of Johnathon Haynes, Michael DeHaven, Bernard Spivey and Neil Danville was 12th with a time of 3:19.25.
Other top finishers for Auburn included junior Sabrina Fischer in the women's 3,000 meters (14th - 10:04.03), freshman Jeff Sanders in the men's 3,000 meters (15th - 8:43.54), DeHaven in the men's 400 meters (49.23 - 30th) and junior Jager Livingston in the men's 60-meter hurdles (8.81 - 23rd) and the 800 meters (2:02.17 - 28th).
The Tigers will return to action next Saturday when they compete at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic hosted by the University of Florida.