Women In Fourth Place, Men In Ninth Going Into Final Day Of ACC Championships

Thursday, February 22

Clemson, S.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Four Named to Women?s XC All-Southeast Region Team

Women In Fourth Place, Men In Ninth Going Into Final Day Of ACC Championships

2/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

CLEMSON, S.C. --- Duke finished the first two days of the ACC Championships in good form on Friday with one day left to compete. The women sit in fourth place out of 12 teams with 21.5 points and the men are in ninth out of 12 teams with 10 points.

Women's: In the women's pentathlon on Thursday, freshman Karolina Haraldsdottir finished in 15th place with a total score of 3212, which was good for the third best pentathlon mark in Duke indoor history. The pentathlon consists of the 60 meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put, the long jump and the 800 meter run.

In the pole vault on Friday, both junior Lara Jones and sophomore Sally Liu qualified for the ECAC championships with their vaults of 12'-1.50" and 11'-09.75." respectively. Jones placed eighth and Liu finished tenth. It was the first time qualifying for the postseason for Liu this season, and her vault bumped her up to fourth on the all-time Duke indoor vaults list.

Senior Shannon Rowbury and freshman Emily Sherrard will compete in the finals for the women's mile after qualifying by placing in the top ten in preliminaries on Friday. Rowbury is Duke's record holder in the event and already automatically qualified for the NCAA championships on Feb. 9.

Freshman Kate VanBuskirk ran a time of 2:12.10 in the 800 meters on Friday, which was good for an ECAC qualifying time. That time also put VanBuskirk in the top eight for the day, thus earning her a spot in the 800 meter finals on Saturday.

In the women's 5000 meters, three Duke runners had exceptional races. Sophomore Maddie McKeever ran the event in 16:16.64, which placed her third and provisionally-qualified her for the NCAA's for the first time this season in the 5000. McKeever's time also moved her into third place on the Duke list for fastest times in the event. Senior Sally Meyerhoff went 16:39.09, and while not her best time ever, it was still good for an NCAA provisional mark and fourth place in the meet. Elle Pishny qualified for the ECAC's by running a 17:23.04 in the 5000 meters in Clemson.

The distance medley relay team of VanBuskirk, senior Lindsay Owen, sophomore Michelle Seibert and senior Elizabeth Wort finished first at the meet with their time of 11:24.72. That mark also qualified the group provisionally for the NCAA's.

Men's: Junior Tyler Clarke competed in the two-day heptathlon at the ACC Championships and finished fifth. His combined score of 5262 qualified him for the IC4A championships and gave him the Duke record in the event.

In the men's distance medley relay, the Blue Devil squad of junior John Brockhardt, sophomore Nick Trombold, freshman Dan McManamon and freshman Tradelle Ward placed sixth at Clemson with their time of 10:06.08. They also qualified for the IC4A's, becoming the second Duke team this season to do so.

Day Three: Competition will resume Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. in Clemson with Duke to compete in 11 more events.

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