Feb. 28, 2010
Complete Results in PDF Format 
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Junior Sheniqua Ferguson and sophomore Marcus Rowland both won individual titles and also claimed runner-up finishes as Auburn completed competition at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Sunday. Ferguson won the 200 meters and placed second in the 60 meters, while Rowland reversed that feat, winning the 60 and finishing second in the 200.
Both the Auburn men and the women finished the meet in sixth place. The women scored 55 points, while the men finished with 50 points.
"We got hit by a couple of key injuries that really hurt us badly," said head coach Ralph Spry. "We tried to fight hard and our kids competed very hard, but we just had some bad breaks today and didn't capitalize on some things we should have. But I feel good about the fact that we had a couple of SEC champions."
Ferguson won the 200 meters in 23.14 seconds, posting the nation's third-best time this year. Her time ranks her fourth in Auburn indoor history and made her the third Auburn woman to win the 200 meters in the last six SEC indoor meets. Fana Ashby was the 2005 champion while Kerron Stewart won in 2007.
In the 60 meters, Ferguson finished second, matching her personal best of 7.22 seconds that also ranks No. 3 in the NCAA this year. South Carolina's Lakya Bookins had the fastest start in the field, and held off a late charge by Ferguson to win in 7.18 seconds. Junior Joanna Atkins finished seventh in 7.40 seconds.
"It was a good experience," said Ferguson. "I wanted to win the 60 but it didn't happen, so I took that feeling of getting second place into my 200. I just really wanted to win the 200 so I just went out there and gave it my all. I'm not as happy with the 60 because I knew I could have run faster, but overall, I'm healthy and didn't receive any injuries, so I'm happy."
In the men's 60 meters, Rowland started strong and pulled away to win in 6.62 seconds, missing his personal best by just .02 seconds. He became the first Auburn man to win the short sprint (formerly 60 yards or 55 meters) since Bryan Howard in 1997. In addition, redshirt freshman Harry Adams finished fifth, clocking a time of 6.72 seconds.
Rowland nearly made it a double victory in the 200 meters, but finished second in 20.81 seconds. Running out of lane six - the outermost lane - Rowland didn't have the start he wanted but came on strong down the stretch to move up to second. Junior Michael DeHaven also placed for Auburn, finishing sixth with a time of 21.09, matching his time from Saturday's preliminaries.
"I told myself if I could get one SEC title I'd be happy," said Rowland. "I really wanted that 200 but it didn't happen, but I'm still satisfied. In the 60, I wanted to keep my stride going and get a good start. My start wasn't that good so I guess the main thing was my stride - I kept that going well. I wasn't so happy with the time but I'm very happy with my place in the SEC."
Although the Tigers had some strong individual performances, a string of unfortunate incidents cost the women a better team finish. It all began when All-American Hollie Knight was injured during the final event Saturday - the 3,000 meters - costing the Tigers points in that event as well as Sunday's 5,000 meters. The first race Sunday resulted in an injury to All-American hurdler Danielle Gilchrist, costing the team more points in the 60-meter hurdles and keeping her out of the 4x400-meter relay as well.
Then in the 400 meters, Joanna Atkins, the defending champion and the NCAA champion during the 2009 outdoor season, stumbled in a collision with another runner and never regained her stride, costing her several positions. She still managed to finish seventh, but her time of 54.73 seconds was far off her time from Saturday of 52.77 that would have been good enough to win on Sunday.
Auburn's bad luck continued in the women's 4x400-meter relay. The Tigers entered the race ranked third, but on the lead leg, junior Cache Armbrister was in the lead when she was unintentionally spiked from behind by an LSU runner and tumbled to the ground, and was unable to continue. LSU was disqualified, but that was little consolation for Auburn, as it didn't result in any points for the Tigers.
Despite the bad luck, Auburn did have several others fare well. In addition to Ferguson, the Tigers had two other scorers in the women's 200 meters. Sophomore Nivea Smith was second with a personal-best time of 23.32, moving up to fifth in school indoor history. Armbrister placed eighth in 24.01 seconds.
In the men's 5,000 meters, sophomore Ben Cheruiyot finished second, clocking an indoor best of 13:54.86, improving his previous best mark that ranks third in school history by nearly two seconds. Senior Felix Kiboiywo just missed scoring in his second event of the meet, placing ninth in 14:23.05.
Freshman Maya Pressley took third in the women's high jump, posting a top clearance of 1.75 meters (5-8.75). She was perfect through her first three attempts, but was unable to get over 1.79 meters (5-10.5).
In the women's 60-meter hurdles, although Gilchrist was unable to finish, junior Krystal Bodie placed fourth and senior Amelia Anderson took fifth. Bodie clocked a time of 8.41 seconds, with Anderson just .04 seconds behind.
While Atkins suffered misfortune in the women's 400 meters, sophomore CeCe Williams placed fifth with a personal-best time of 53.86 seconds, becoming just the fourth Auburn woman in history to go under 54 seconds indoors.
In the women's 5,000 meters, senior Laurel Pritchard placed seventh in 17:20.41, while senior Stephanie Barnes was ninth in 17:33.44.
"We put ourselves in position after day one and day two, and we really had done what we needed to do on the women's side," said Spry. "I knew with our men's team this was a little bit of a rebuilding time for us. We came in half loaded with the men, but still the first two days went great, but the final day it was just one of those unfortunate things. But we have two teams that are ranked very high on the national level, so we just have to regroup and finish this indoor season strong."
Also for Auburn, in the women's triple jump, junior Erica Akins finished 10th with a personal-best mark of 12.02 meters (39-5.25) while Anderson was 13th with a jump of 11.68 meters (38-4) and freshman Katherine Culwell was 15th (11.44 meters, 37-6.5).
Senior Valentina Srsa placed 18th in the weight throw, sophomore Monica Carney was 18th in the high jump, junior Gerard Brown was 19th in the triple jump
Next weekend, selected members of the Auburn teams will compete in Last Chance Qualifying meets in an attempt to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships, which will take place March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.