Graham Successfully Defends Her Long Jump Title
2/17/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
- Live Simulcast
SYRACUSE, NY (February 17, 2001)- Junior Nolle Graham (Bronx, NY) successfully defended her long jump title to lead the Seton Hall women's track & field team to fifth place following the day one events at the BIG EAST Indoor track & field championships in Syracuse, NY. The men's team is currently in 12th position.
Graham won the long jump competition for the second consecutive year with distance of 6.39m. Her winning jump also automatically qualifies her for the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Bridgette Ingram (Maplewood, NJ) earned 10 team points for the women's team by winning the pentathlon competition with 3589 total points. Ingram was the runner-up in last year's BIG EAST Indoor Championships.
Junior Jana Burton (Queens, NY) came in seventh in the women's weight throw event. He throw of 15.25m earned the women's team two points.
The men's team scored their first points of the weekend with a sixth place finish in the distance medley relay. Three team points were earned for their time of 10:20.25.
The majority of the events on Saturday were preliminary events to decide which athletes make the finals on Sunday. Nine individual members of the men's team and four individual members of the women's team qualified for the finals in their respective events.
In addition to her championship in the long jump, Graham recorded the top preliminary times in the 60m dash and 200m dash. Senior Shontee Bryant (Silver Spring, MD) qualified for the finals in the same two events.
Senior Natasha Clary (Plainfield, NJ) qualified for the finals in the 60m hurdles and freshman Kaneisha Campbell (Lakewood, NJ) qualified for the finals in the 800m.
The men's team saw junior Sheldon Melbourne (St. Catherine, Jamaica) qualify for the finals in the 500m and the 800m.
Freshmen OJ Hogans (Decatur, GA) and sophomore Marvin Regis (Valencia, Trinidad) recorded the top two preliminary times in the 200m. Freshman Dwayne Thomas (Burtonsville, MD) had the best time in the 500m.
Other men's team finals qualifiers include sophomore Kareem Taylor (Trinidad, WI) and senior Ken Nelson (Fort Gratiot, MI) in the 400m, freshman Rohan Alexis (Grenada) in the 800m, junior Carl Planty (Sauquoit, NY) in the mile and sophomore Jeff Young (Camden, NJ) in the 60m hurdles.
Day two of the BIG EAST Indoor Track & Field Championships will begin tomorrow at 10:30am with the finals of the triple jump competition. The BIG EAST Championships will conclude with the team awards ceremony at 3:35pm.
