Columbus, Ohio, May 15, 2005 - Freshman Shana Cox (Westbury, N.Y.) had a brilliant day claiming two gold medals, but the Penn State women's track and field team came up just short of a Big Ten outdoor title for the third straight year as Illinois claimed the crown Sunday at the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Penn State posted a team score of 112.5 to finish behind winner Illinois (135) and ahead of defending champion Michigan (110.5) in third. Penn State, which won the 2004 Big Ten indoor title, claimed its third straight second place finish at the conference's outdoor championships
Cox won the 400 meters and ran the anchor leg for Penn State's winning 4X100-meter relay team on the day. The sprinter added an eighth place finish in the 200 meters and a fifth in the 4X400-meter relay to help score 25 team points. Cox ran a Penn State record time of 52.91 to claim the 400-meter crown as she took the lead on the final turn and extended it down the stretch. Freshman Dominique Blake took fifth in the race in 55.11. The 4X100-meter relay team of Brooke Robinson, Kamilah Salaam, Sara Shoaff and Cox won Penn State's first title of the day as they successfully defended the Nittany Lions crown in the event, winning in a season-best time of 45.27, just two tenths off the Penn State record. Penn State claimed three titles overall for the event as junior Jennifer Leatherman won the hammer throw on Friday. Shoaff went on to finish fourth in the 200 meters in 24.03 and Cox was eighth in 24.35. Salaam took eighth in the 100 meters in 11.81 and joined Cheryl Green, Cox, and Gayle Hunter in placing fifth in the 4X400-meter relay in 3:43.96. Hunter, who earlier claimed runner-up in the heptathlon, also scored in the triple jump on the day taking fifth with a leap of 40-0. Leatherman, who scored in three events on the championship and a total of 22 points, joined junior Christen Clemson in collecting nine team points in the discus. Clemson took fourth with a throw of 159-3 while Leatherman was fifth with a mark of 156-9. Sophomore Kim Markel took fifth in the 400-meter hurdles posting a time of 1:00.93, while senior Molly Landreth was sixth in the 5,000 in a regional qualifying time of 16:48.16. Former Penn State soccer player Stephanie Pezzullo added to the team scoring taking eighth in the 1,500 meters in a time of 4:31.07. Penn State next heads to the NCAA East Regional in Randall's Island, N.Y., May 27-28.
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