Louisville Men in Second Place After Saturday's Action at BIG EAST Championships :: Men win six medals; Women in first overall with 51 points

May 3, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Sophomore thrower Jere' Summers won two event titles and set two meet records to lead the University of Louisville women's track and field team to the lead after Saturday's action at the 2008 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships at Villanova Stadium. On the men's side, the Cards won six medals and stand in second place after Saturday's competition.

The Louisville women scored 51 points on Saturday to lead the field of 16 teams through eight scored events, while Notre Dame is second with 38 points. Syracuse is third with 31 points, followed by USF in fourth with 26 points and Pittsburgh in fifth with 24 points.

In the men's race, the Cards finished with 54 points through the first eight scored events to trail Notre Dame's 58 points. Connecticut is third with 35 points, followed by Rutgers in fourth with 34 points and USF in fifth with 30 points.

Leading the charge for the Louisville women was Summers with wins in the discus and shot put. In the discus, she had a throw of 185 feet, 11 inches, the third best mark in the nation this season and an impressive improvement on her previous school record throw of 171-03. The throw, which broke the previous meet record of 184-08 set by Cheree Hicks of Syracuse in 2000, is also a "B" qualifying mark for the US Olympic Trials and could put Summers in position to compete for a spot on Team USA for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

In the shot put, Summers set another meet record with her first-place mark of 54-05.50, breaking the previous BIG EAST record of 54-05.25 by Syracuse's Hicks in 2000.

Joining Summers with medal-winning performances for the Louisville women on Saturday was freshman Chinwe Okoro with third-place finishes in the discus and shot put. In the discus, she had a regional qualifying and personal best throw of 168-02, while in the shot put, she had a mark of 49-03.50 to clinch her second bronze medal of the day.

The Louisville men won six medals on Saturday led by silver medal winning performances from Andre Black, Soimo Kiplagat and Cory Thorne. Black finished second in the long jump with a regional qualifying leap of 25-02.50, while Kiplagat was second in the 10,000m with a time of 29:17.85. Thorne finished second in the 3,000m steeplechase with a regional qualifying time of 9:03.42 in his first steeplechase race this season.

Also earning medals for the Louisville men on Saturday was junior Rudon Bastian with a third-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 24-03.75, redshirt freshman Michael Eaton in the 10,000m with a time of 29:32.86 and freshman Josh Greenwald with a third-place finish in the discus with a throw of 171-03.

Other point-scorers for the Louisville women on Saturday include Taryn Gibson (fifth) in the 10,000m; Amaka Omenyinma (fourth), Rachel Gehret (seventh) and Seidre Forde (eighth) in the long jump; Andrea Sabbatine (seventh) in the pole vault; D'Ana McCarty (seventh) and Lindsey Cook (eighth) in the discus; and ZeNai Savage (sixth) in the shot put.

Also scoring points for the Louisville men on Saturday was Phil Feinberg (fourth) in the high jump and Andrew Hackney (fourth) and Weston Banks (seventh) in the discus.

The Louisville women had three athletes advance to event finals with strong performances on Saturday, led by junior Heather Trimiew in the 400m hurdles with a season's best time of 1:00.98 to finish second overall on Saturday. Sophomore Tarah McKay will compete in the 1500m final after finishing fifth in the prelims with a time of 4:26.32, while Theresa Lewis finished seventh in the prelims of the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.03.

The men's team had two athletes advance to event finals on Saturday as senior Chris Danks finished fourth in the prelims of the 800m with a regional qualifying time of 1:50.19, while senior Nathan Navaro was seventh in the prelims of the 400m hurdles with a time of 52.88.

The final day of competition at the 2008 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET. Following the BIG EAST Championships, the Cards will have a weekend off from competition before returning to action on May 17 at home at the Cardinal Twilight in Louisville. The Cardinal Twilight will be the final opportunity for Louisville athletes to earn bids to the NCAA Mideast Regional on May 30-31 in Fayetteville, Ark.

BIG EAST Outdoor Championships - Philadelphia, Pa. Saturday Results

Men's Team Standings (Through 8 events) 1 Notre Dame 58 points 2 LOUISVILLE 54 points 3 Connecticut 35 points 4 Rutgers 34 points 5 USF 30 points 6 Cincinnati 27 points 7 Syracuse 22 points 8 Georgetown 20 points

U of L Men's Individual Results 100m Dash - Prelims 9 Edmund Yeboah 10.74 10 Tony Baffour 10.75

110m Hurdles - Prelims 11 Chris Brautzsch 14.56 12 Brad Keys 14.78

200m - Prelims 9 Tony Baffour 21.62

400m Hurdles - Prelims 7 Nathan Navaro 52.88 q 12 Brad Keys 53.45 13 Joey Hodges 53.64

800m - Prelims 4 Chris Danks 1:50.19 # q

3000m Steeplechase - Final 2 Cory Thorne 9:03.42 #

10000m - Final 2 Soimo Kiplagat 29:17.85 3 Michael Eaton 29:32.86

High Jump - Final 4 Phil Feinberg 2.07m/6-09.50 9 Neil Angermeier 1.99m/6-06.25

Long Jump - Final 2 Andre Black 7.68m/25-02.50 # 3 Rudon Bastian 7.41m/24-03.75 # 10 Brandon Newell 6.76m/22-02.25

Discus - Final 3 Josh Greenwald 52.19m/171-03 # 4 Andrew Hackney 52.13m/171-00 # 7 Weston Banks 49.74m/163-02

Shot Put - Final 10 Weston Banks 15.55m/51-00.25 - Josh Greenwald FOUL

Decathlon - Final 9 Robbie Moore 6,251 points

Decathlon - Event by Event (D) 110m Hurdles 11 Robbie Moore 16.74 (D) 1500m 4 Robbie Moore 4:43.68 (D) Pole Vault 2 Robbie Moore 4.35m/14-03.25 (D) Discus 7 Robbie Moore 34.15m/112-00 (D) Javelin 9 Robbie Moore 43.63m/143-02

Women's Team Standings (Through 8 events) 1 LOUISVILLE 51 points 2 Notre Dame 38 points 3 Syracuse 31 points 4 USF 26 points 5 Pittsburgh 24 points 6 Georgetown 22 points 7 Cincinnati 19 points 8 Marquette 14 points

U of L Women's Individual Results 100m Hurdles - Prelims 7 Theresa Lewis 14.03 q

400m Hurdles - Prelims 2 Heather Trimiew 1:00.98 q

800m - Prelims 19 Kat Alcorn 2:22.63

1500m - Prelims 5 Tarah McKay 4:26.32 q

10000m - Final 5 Taryn Gibson 35:40.15

Long Jump - Final 4 Amaka Omenyinma 6.02m/19-09.00 # 7 Rachel Gehret 5.81m/19-00.75 8 Seidre Forde 5.80m/19-00.50

Pole Vault - Final 7 Andrea Sabbatine 3.50m/11-05.75

Discus - Final 1 Jere' Summers 56.67m/185-11 # m * 3 Chinwe Okoro 51.25m/168-02 # 7 D'Ana McCarty 44.46m/145-10 8 Lindsey Cook 44.15m/144-10

Javelin - Final 9 Holly Geibel 40.92m/134-03

Shot Put - Final 1 Jere' Summers 16.60m/54-05.50 # m 3 Chinwe Okoro 15.02m/49-03.50 6 ZeNai Savage 14.78m/48-06.00 12 D'Ana McCarty 13.10m/42-11.75

* = School record # = NCAA Mideast Regional Qualifier q = Qualifies for event final m = Meet record