Going into Saturday’s Atlantic Ten Conference Indoor Track Championship at Rhode Island’s Mackal Fieldhouse, Charlotte’s 4x400m relay team had Temple freshman Brittany McRae thinking.
“Charlotte was really my primary concern,”McRae said.McRae, along with sophomores Devon DuPont and Carlleen Allison, and junior Shanice DePass, topped the 49ers in the event with a time of 3:56.02 en route to a first-place finish.
McRae individually finished second in the 55m hurdles with a time of 8.18 and fourth in the long jump with a leap of 17-8 ¾. McRae’s hurdle time was quick enough to meet Eastern College Athletic Conference qualifying standards.
“I was surprised at first,” McRae said. “It was the best time I’ve ever run.”
Overall, Charlotte finished on top of the 12-team field with a total of 167 points. Richmond settled into second place with 110, and Rhode Island followed in third with 86. Temple finished eighth.
The men’s track and field team also finished eighth as Joshua Louis was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Rookie. Louis won the high jump by clearing 6-7. Marquise Stancil placed third in the 500m with a 1:05.35, his season-best.
Also contributing to the women’s team’s performance was freshman Melissa Gale, who finished third with a 10-10 in the pole vault. Junior Kimberlyn Hill finished sixth in the triple jump (36-7), and sophomore Amanda Cole placed fourth in the shot put (39-10 ½) and sixth in the weight throw (48-0 ½).
“We did much better than last year,” McRae said. “And we’re going to keep improving.”
he Owls’ performance was a big improvement from earlier in the season, considering that the Owls two best finishes before Saturday were 10th out of 22 at the Great Dane Classic, and fourth out of 10 at the Delaware Invitational. The team’s eighth-place finish Saturday was also better than its 10th place showing in 2006.
“We saw more people play in the meet on Saturday,” McRae said, which she added is yet another positive sign for the Owls this season. On Friday, the Owls will travel to the NYU Fast Track event in New York City.
T.C. Mazar can be reached at tmazar@temple.edu.
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