Jan. 28, 2007

Complete Results

Johnson City, Tenn. - The Western Carolina men's and women's track & field teams combined for seven podium finishes over the two-day NISWONGER Indoor Invitational held at the Memorial Center on the campus of East Tennessee State. WCU posted eight team seasonal best performances at the meet.

Also on the weekend, the multi event athletes competed in the Jarrett Foster Heptathlon/Pentathlon Championships at Clemson. Senior Matt Harlfinger led Western with an eighth-place finish by securing 4,512 points. He was followed by Ashten Bennett in 10th (4,273 pts) and David Gift in 13th (3,940 pts). On the women's side, sophomore Morgan Broadnax led the Cats also with an eighth-place showing with 2,818 points, with Jessica Wilkerson in 10th (2,605 pts) and Brittany Whittaker in 11th (2,556 pts).

Posting the lone first-place finish at the NISWONER Invitational for WCU was the men's 4x400-meter relay team of sophomore Manteo Mitchell, senior James Gregory, and juniors Mike Malone and Zeb Johnson. After posting the best time out of 24 teams in the preliminary round, the Catamount squad came from behind to nip Saint Augustine's at the line by 19 one-hundredths of a second, 3:13.07 over 3:13.26. On the last leg, Johnson brought the Memorial Center crowd to its feet with his rally to help Western to the top of the chart.

Johnson also ran ninth during the 60-meter preliminaries to advance to Saturday's final where the Charlotte, N.C., native finished second with a time of 6.92. His teammates, freshman Dominique Young and Malone finished seventh and ninth, respectively. Adding to his busy weekend, Johnson additionally qualified for the men's 200-meter dash final by finishing fourth during the preliminary rounds with a season-best time of 21.59. However, with Johnson running in the 1,600-meter relay final, Young, who was 12th in prelims with a time of 22.01, ran in the finals to a fourth-place showing. Malone also ran ninth in the men's 60-meter hurdles (8.90).

Other top 10 performances for Western included senior Dylan Hermelee and freshman Jestin Jennings who ran ninth and tenth, respectively, in the men's 800-meter run with Hermelee's time of 1:59.11 ranking as WCU's best this season. Hermelee and Jennings teamed with junior Duke Craig and sophomore Noah Taylor to finish fourth in the men's distance medley, and sophomore Rashad Herndon leaped 6.64 meters (21-9.5) in the men's seeded long jump to finish eighth while freshman Stephon Moore placed ninth in the unseeded men's long jump competition (6.02m, 19-9).

For the women, junior Raquel Ramseur ran second in the 400-meter dash (55.95) after qualifying fourth in the preliminary round on Friday. The junior from Charlotte also posted a ninth-place finish in the women's 200-meter dash with a time of 24.94. Also on Friday, junior Kerrie Savery placed third in the seeded 800-meter run (2:14.98) and sophomore Annie Bailey finished fourth in the unseeded 800-meter run (2:23.86). After running ninth in the preliminaries, senior Asia Davis finished fifth (9.15) in the 60-meter hurdles, edging out junior NaShay McGriff in sixth, who ran her seasonal best time of 9.20.

Ramseur, Savery and Davis teamed with sophomore Aneesha Lane in the women's 4x400-meter relay as the Catamounts moved from third in the preliminary rounds to second in the finals with a time of 3:46.60, the best for WCU this season. Savery also ran with Bailey, Kulesz, and freshman Tierra Johnson in the women's distance medley, finishing fourth with a time of 12:31.37.

Additional top 10 finishes on the track for the Catamount women included senior Deanna Kulesz running third in the 3,000-meter run with a season-best time of 10:37.13. She was followed by sophomore Skye Aiello in seventh (11:07.87) and Leah Nicholson in10th (11:12.56).

In the field events, freshman Tia Jones finished third in the women's long jump (5.08m, 16-8.0) also posting a 15th-place showing in the triple jump (11.24m, 36-10.5). Freshman Amanda Massey tied her seasonal-best by clearing 2.90 meters (9-6.25) in the women's pole vault

The Catamounts return to action this weekend (Fri., Feb 2-Sat., Feb. 3) as they travel to the Akron Open in Akron, Ohio