Women's Track Completes Day One at NECs
Central completes day one in fifth place out of nine teams.
The Central Connecticut women's track and field team completed day one of the 2014 NEC Outdoor Championships in fifth place on Saturday in Coraopolis, PA. Junior Ronea Saunders helped lead the Blue Devils with a silver medal in the high jump event for the second-straight season.
Saunders completed the high jump clearing 1.70m, tying LIU Brooklyn's Kyaira Wright-Harmon for the lead but earning second based on missed attempts. The third-year Blue Devil also competed in the long jump for CCSU, finishing seventh with her distance of 5.30m.
The CCSU relay squad claimed the bronze Saturday, completing the race in 9:28.91, collecting six team points. The team consisted of junior Taylor LePage, sophomore Ally Gates and freshmen Jazmin Booker and Brittany Mendelson.
Mendelson also performed well in individual events on the day. The freshman qualified for tomorrow's finals competition in the 1,500m run. She crossed the line second overall, first in her heat, with her time of 4:51.31.
In addition to Mendelson's qualifying time, CCSU turned in four more qualifying performances on the day including two from senior Shelby Tuttle.
Tuttle earned a new career-best time in the 400m hurdles, crossing the finish line in 1:02.54 for fourth place in the preliminaries. She was followed closely in the event by sophomore Alyssa Gonzalez who finished fifth in 1:03.93, good for advancing to tomorrow's finals round.
In the 110m hurdles, Tuttle also placed fourth in the prelims with her time of 14.48 seconds. She was the only Blue Devil to qualify for the finals in the event, though freshman Mellissa Wolliston and Gonzalez both finished ninth and 10th, respectively, just out of the last qualifying spot.
LePage grabbed the last qualifying spot in the 800m run. The junior crossed the line in 2:22.32, good for eighth place.
Junior Shannon McBride helped tally points for CCSU in the 10,000m run. She finished in a time of 39:02.96 for seventh place in her first collegiate appearance in the event.
After day one, Robert Morris is in first with 59 points followed by Sacred Heart (57), Bryant (22), LIU Brooklyn (20) and CCSU (18).
The 2014 NEC Championships will resume tomorrow, Sunday, May 4. The women's events are scheduled to begin with the discus at 9:30 a.m. Fans can follow all of the action live via live stats, follow @NECTrack on Twitter and find all NEC Championship information on the NEC Championship Central page.