Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
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Falcons Battle at the Tom Wright Classic
January 31, 2009 | Women's Track and Field
Jan. 31, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Falcons would record seven first place finishers at the Tom Wright Classic. This includes the first victories of the season for senior Kara Butler, junior Sabrina Forstein and sophomore Rachel Doughty.
"We've always been focused on getting the best effort out regardless of who was here to compete against us or what the conditions were." said head coach Cami Wells, "The only change from a scored meet, for us, was just moving some people around. I think we had the same effort across the board."
Senior Kara Butler would display the Falcons' effort and start off the Tom Wright Classic with a victory for Bowling Green State University. Butler ran a 18:06.12 in the 5,000 meter race, 10 seconds from tying her personal best. Fellow senior Stephanie Hillman would finish in second place 39 seconds behind Butler.
"It always builds your confidence to go into a meet and take away a good solid effort and the win." said Butler, "This will help me continue my focus for the rest of the season."
BGSU would do well in other distance events including the one mile run. A triad of Falcons would finish in the third to fifth place positions. The first finisher would be red shirted sophomore Autumn Dettmann running a time of 5:09.80, junior Andrea Pereira de Almeida would follow seven seconds behind Dettmann and junior Carly Wells finished with a time of 5:22.47.
In the 3,000 meter, freshman Sally Jerop Kandie would place second setting a new personal best record with a time of 10:40.82. Teammate sophomore Megan Kelsey finished third with a time of 10:51.03.
Sophomore Heather Conger would attain her second straight first place finish in the 800 meter run. Conger would also break her personal record in the 800 meter for the second straight week with a time of 2:19.54. Freshman Saisha Galliard would finish one second behind Conger placing third.
"It felt good to drop three seconds off my time from last week," said Conger.
Shannon Laseak, red shirt sophomore, would set a new personal record in the 600 meter run with a time of 1:44.27, placing third. Laseak would finish one second behind red shirt sophomore Hillary Hewit placing second and one second in front of red shirt freshman Gillian Allen placing fourth.
In the field events senior Whitney Hartman would continue her winning streak at home. Hartman placed first tossing the weight 18.54 meters, breaking the 60 foot barrier for the first time this season. Senior TaKarra Dunning would secure her victory in the shot put with a 13.92 meter toss, 1.37 meters farther than Hartman, the second place finisher.
Red shirted freshmen JaReese Barrett and Katie Manocchio set new personal records in the weight throw. Manocchio would have a 12.49 meter throw that put her in seventh place and Barrett would throw the weight 12.34 meters earning her ninth in overall competition.
Personal performances by non-competing freshmen Ashley Harris and Jessie Rowland showed positive signs for the team's future. Harris would place third in both the weight throw (14.83 meters) and the shot put (11.90 meters). Rowland placed second in the weight throw (15.10 meters) and seventh in the shot put (10.80 meters).
"For those young ladies [non-competing freshman] to have the opportunity this year to work on techniques, get stronger and having the opportunity to compete at home with their teammates was nice," said Wells, "It will be exciting to have them compete with us next year."
After sitting out the first two meets of the season, due to illness, junior Sabrina Forstein made her debut. Forstein would win the pole vault and set a new personal record of 3.66 meters. She would try for the BGSU pole vault record of 12'3.75" but would fail to complete the vault.
"Today I was really determined to prove that I was ready and I think I made the right decision to come back early." said Forstein, "I'm hoping next week I can get the school record and by All-Ohio jump a 12'6" or 13'."
Sophomore Rachel Doughty would earn her first victory of the season in the long jump. Doughty jumped 5.02 meters beating the second place finisher, Danielle Jacoby from the University of Toledo, by .07 meters.
The BGSU track and field team will compete next at the Central Michigan University Quadrangular on Friday Feb. 6 beginning at 5:00 p.m.
