Men's Results | Women's Results
CINCINNATI, Ohio - Forced indoors after heavy rains early Saturday morning created large puddles near the outdoor pit, junior Dana Webb gave the University of South Florida track and field teams a sweep of the women's pole vault this year as she took home the BIG EAST title during the first full day of competition at the BIG EAST Championships at Cincinnati's Gettler Stadium.
Webb jumped 12-5.5 on her second attempt for the win inside the old Armory Fieldhouse that once hosted Bearcat basketball, defeating Carrie Schmid of Marquette who cleared the same height but on her third attempt. The Bulls earned a pair of All-BIG EAST honors in the event after 2010 BIG EAST indoor champion Stephanie Duffy finished third at 12-1.5.
"The goal for Stephanie and I coming in was to place in the top 3, and that's exactly what we did," said Webb. "It was a little bit of a challenge having to move indoors to jump, but we came out and competed as hard as we could. We felt that Coach (Don) Marsh had us mentally prepared for that challenge."
The win was the first BIG EAST outdoor title for the women's team since USF joined the league prior to the 2005-06 season and the first outdoor conference champion in the pole vault since USF began competition in 1991. The Bulls have won three indoor pole vault titles on the women's side.
Giving the Bulls their third All-BIG EAST honor of the afternoon and a spot on the podium was freshman Monique Williams, who grabbed third in the long jump competition. Williams, who arrived on campus for the spring semester back in January, posted a new personal best of 19-6, maintaining third on the all-time USF top-10 list.
Williams finished behind champion Whitney Holder of UConn, who won with a jump of 20-0.5, as well as Louisville's Charachesicia Lockhart, who took second at 19-11.75.
The women's team finished the day in third place with 40 points, the most the team has scored in five years in the BIG EAST.
USF also ran in numerous preliminaries throughout the day, with sophomore David Aristil putting himself in good position to earn a top-3 finish Sunday. Aristil was third in the prelims of the 400 hurdles when he ran 51.31, and fifth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.15.
Also placing fifth in the prelims and locking up a spot in the final was senior Yvana Hepburn, whose time of 13.87 in the 100 hurdles locked up her spot in the race on Sunday.
USF football players and freshmen Derrick Hopkins and Lindsey Lamar qualified for the final in the 100 meters, as Hopkins had the third-best time of the afternoon in 10.60 seconds, while Lamar just made the cut at 10.77. Freshman Kayvon Webster also had a time of 10.77 but ran slightly slower than Lamar as he just missed qualifying for the final.
Hopkins did the same in the 200, just missing out on qualifying for the final after completing the race in 21.76, the same time as the eighth-place finisher.
Sophomores Casey Wagner and Sarah Canter scored the first points of the meet for the Bulls Saturday morning when they both made the final of the javelin. Wagner just missed out on All-BIG EAST honors, placing fourth with a throw of 149-4 after Rutgers' Jessica Bandy beat her out for third place on Bandy's sixth and final throw. Canter launched the javelin 141-0 on her last throw as well to place sixth.
Scoring points for the women's team as well was sophomore Nicole Rozario, who used a time of 10:30.08 to take fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase.
Like Wagner, sophomore Jared Thomas also finished just short of all-conference honors when he took fourth in the discus with a throw of 170-2. Senior Michael Kursteiner came in one spot below that in the high jump, taking fifth inside the Armory Fieldhouse with a jump of 6-9.5.
Freshman Neamen Wise had a solid day in the long jump after competing in the event just once during the outdoor season. Wise made the final in a very talented field and then finished in a tie for seventh with a leap of 23-11. The mark surpassed the previous personal best for the 2009 Florida state champion that had stood at 23-10.25.
Sophomores Atasha Warren and Lauren Noe scored points for the Bulls when they came in seventh and eighth, respectively, in the discus. Noe threw 146-5, while Warren used a heave of 150-1 for seventh.
Junior Rachel Etienne kicked things off for the Bulls Friday when she began competition in the heptathlon. Etienne ultimately placed sixth after the end of competition Saturday with a point total of 4,709 as she again bested her previous high this season. Etienne had totaled 4,565 points at the FSU Relays in late March, moving into second all-time at USF Saturday behind school record holder Alexis McGaffagan.
Etienne posted PRs in the 100 hurdles, 200 meters and shot put on Friday. She placed fourth in the hurdles at 15.03 as well as fourth in the 200 in 25.73. She also used a heave of 32-7.5 in the shot put to go past 30 feet for the first time in her career.
Etienne helped herself out by placing third in the 800 Saturday in a time of 2:21.42 and fourth in the long jump at 18-1.
Freshman Dariel Jackson missed out on a shot to run in the final of the 100 meters by just 0.02 seconds when she placed 10th in the prelims. Jackson did post a new PR and broke the 12-second barrier when she ran in 11.90, which landed her at ninth all-time at USF. Jackson nearly had a PR in the 200 in 24.45.
A season-best of 2:11.29 for sophomore Shaniel Chambers gave her 11th in the 800 meters, while sophomore Reshaw Exilien came in 12th in the 400 at 48.47.
Senior Kayla Richmond, winding down her collegiate career, ran more than a second faster than her previous best in the 400 hurdles on the heels of a time of 1:02.44 that landed her in 13th place.
The Bulls will be back on the track Sunday for the final day of competition in the Championships with the finals of the sprints and several more field events.
