Panther Women Halfway To Championship Repeat
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Feb. 24, 2007) - Individual championships and league records by sophomore Jenni Saarinen and freshman Erin Havener have the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's track and field team sitting first after the first day of the 2007 Horizon League Indoor Championships, Saturday in Ann Arbor. The Panthers have 68 points, compared to 60 by second-place Youngstown State, with one day's of action to go. UWM and YSU have distanced themselves from the field, as Loyola sits third with 18 points, Butler fourth with 16 and Wright State fifth with 14. "The key for us is limiting our losses," head coach Pete Corfeld said. "A good team balances out events that don't go as planned. On the first day, we've been able to do that, so we are sitting pretty well on both (the men's and women's) sides." Saarinen repeated as league champion in the pentathlon, tallying 3,700 points to break her own league (3,459) and school records (3,688) while also reaching the NCAA Provisional score (3,700). She also took third in the long jump, where the Panthers took five of the six scoring places. She leapt 17-6 3/4. Sophomore Kicha Cary was second with a distance of 18-8 1/2 and sophomore Beth Zimmerman was fourth at 17-4 1/4. Freshmen Regina Pierce and Emily Budde also scored. Pierce was fifth with a jump of 17-1 1/4 and Budde took sixth at 16-9 3/4. Havener cleared a league-record 11-9 3/4 in winning the pole vault, the third-straight year UWM has won the event. She topped the old mark of 11-1 3/4. Sophomore Jes Weyandt took second, also surpassing that old mark with her final height of 11-3 3/4.
"Anytime a freshman can come into their first league meet, win the event and set a school record is significant," Corfeld said. Milwaukee scored in two more events on day one, scoring three runners in the 5000m and taking fourth in the distance medley. Sophomore Holly Nearman took second in the 5000m in a time of 18:06.57 with senior Kourtney Nault taking third in 18:13.22. Junior Angie Huebner crosed the line in 18:38.83 for sixth. The distance medley combined on a time of 12:50.37. UWM's success carried over into the preliminaries of the running events, as senior Timeka Walker took first in the prelims of both the 60m and 200m. Freshman Stef Ross also qualified for tomorrow's finals in the 60m in sixth, while freshman Kelsey Conrad qualified sixth in the 200m. Conrad also won her heat and qualified third in the 400m, where Budde also qualified sixth. Senior Taryn Cozine led three Panthers into the finals of the 60m hurdles, taking third ahead of senior Andrea Ziebell in fifth and Saarinen in sixth. Freshman Laura Ring will also appear in the finals of the 800m, having taken third in the prelims. The second and final day of the league championships gets underway Sunday at 9 a.m. Milwaukee is looking for its second-straight indoor championship and fifth in team history. |
