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Feb. 29, 2004
Women's Track & Field: Penguins Capture Horizon League Indoor
Championship
Greencastle, Ind. --
The Youngstown State women's track
team used a complete team attack and
four individual champions to capture
the 2004 Horizon League Indoor Track
and Field Championship on the campus
of DePauw University on Sunday.
Nearly every member of the team scored as the Penguins
defeated second-place UW-Milwaukee
by 30 points (143-113). With
the win, the team captured YSU's
first women's indoor conference
title since 1996.
Danielle Bolt was named the Horizon League Newcomer of the
Year, winning the 60-meter dash in a
Horizon League record time of 7.71
seconds. She also finished
fifth in the 200-meter dash with a
time of 25.92. Other
individual winners on the women's
side included Leslie Johnson in the
400-meter dash, Emily Schnitkey in
the mile and Aaliyah Gillespie in
the 60-meter hurdles.
Bolt, who had already set the school record in the 60 earlier
in the year, said that she expected
to do well in her first season.
"I kind of expected to do well right away when Coach Gorby
showed me the times and I kept
improving, but it still feels
great."
The women's 4x400-meter relay of Bolt, Alex Casi, Jeanna
Cunningham and Johnson shattered the
YSU and Horizon League records with
a first-place time of 3 minutes,
52.80 seconds.
Head coach Brian Gorby was named Women's Coach of the Year in
leading the team to the title.
Gorby, who was named Men's Coach of
the Year last season, has now won
the honor 10 times in his 11 years
at the helm of the Penguins.
Johnson, one of three seniors on the squad, won the 400 by a
margin of just one-hundredth of a
second in a school record time of
57.25.
"This is an amazing feeling," Johnson said. "Everyone
worked so hard and put so much
effort in all season long. It
was a great team effort."
Schnitkey, who
redshirted during the 2003 outdoor
and cross country seasons with a
stress fracture, won the mile in
5:04.28. Gillespie, who also
missed significant time due to a
hamstring injury that lingered on
through the midway point of this
season, won the 60-meter hurdles in
a time of 8.90.
"I was a little nervous heading into the race because I had
only ran two or three times all
year," Gillespie said. "I
worked really hard in practice to
get back and it paid off."
Schnitkey added a fourth-place finish in the 800 and was part
of the second-place distance medley
relay that also included Marielle
Glanz, Lindsay Wojciak and Gina
Mavrikis.
Freshman Lisa Davies scored 17 points with second-place
finishes in the 3,000 and
5,000-meter runs and a sixth-place
spot in the mile. She finished
just two seconds behind the winner
in the 5,000 with a time of 17:31.60
and added a time of 10:12.63 in the
3,000. Wojciak added a
fourth-place finish in the 1,000 in
a personal-best time of 3:04.48.
In the sprints and hurdles, Jeanna Cunningham finished third
in the 200 in 25.65 and fourth in
the 60 with a time of 7.89 to pick
up 10 points. Cassandra Smith
finished third in the 60 hurdles
with a time of 9.31 while Casi
finished fifth in the 400 in 59.36.
In the field events, Casi finished second in the long jump
with a leap of 17 feet, 4 3/4 inches
while Nikki Hooper finished fourth
with jump of 16-10. Hooper
added a third-place finish in the
triple jump while Laura Schatz
finished second in the high jump
with a mark of 5-5 3/4.
Amy Hill headed the throw with a second-place finish in the
shot put with a throw of 43-0 1/2.
Lindsey Hill added a fifth-place
finish in the shot while Katy
Williams placed fourth in the weight
throw with a toss of 49-5 1/2.
YSU finished with 143 points while UW-Milwaukee finished with
113. Detroit came in third
place with 86.5 points while Loyola,
Butler, UIC and Wright State rounded
out the fourth through seventh
places. |
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