Women Maintain Lead at 2012 IC4A/ECAC Championships

5/12/2012 7:17:00 PM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

PRINCETON, N.J. - The Duke women's track and field team improves their lead on day two the 2012 ECAC Championships with great performances in the javelin and pole vault. The women finish the day with 56.50 points, over 30 points ahead of the second place team. The men finished the day with 29 points, one point off of first place.

"Overall it was a pretty good day for us," Director of Track and Field Norm Ogilvie commented. "The women have continued to set themselves up to claim the crown tomorrow. We did have a few down moments but a lot of highlights as well."

Junior Shannon Sullivan earned her first ECAC crown with a mark of 156-10 (47.80) in the javelin throw. Teammate junior Andrea Hopkins also earned points for the Blue Devils with her mark of 147-10 (45.07) which was good enough for fourth place and All-East honors.

Senior Amy Fryt finished second in the women's pole vault by clearing 12-8.75 (3.88) and was joined by junior Emily Mattoon who cleared a season-best height of 12-4.75 (3.78) to tie for sixth place. Both women garnered All-East honors for their performance.

On the men's side, Justin Amezquita set a personal record and moved to second on the Duke all-time list in the pole vault by clearing 17-0 (5.18). The mark was good enough for second place and All-East honors.

Other Blue Devils set personal records during the day including freshman Carolyn Baskir in the women's 1,500 meters. The Chapel Hill, N.C. native ran and time of 4:28.90 to qualify for tomorrows finals. The women's 4x400 relay also qualified for finals by running a school record breaking time of 3:40.63. The quartet included freshman Lauren Hansson and Elizabeth Kerpon and was joined by seniors Brittany Whitehead and Cydney Ross. Kerpon also ran a personal best in the open 400 by completed the distance in 54.98.

Several Duke student-athletes came into this weekend on the edge of qualifying for regionals and were hoping to improve their times and rankings within the region.

"Unfortunately, I don't think many people who are on the bubble right now are in much better positions than they were coming into the weekend but we won't know until the final rankings come out next week."

One athlete in this position was senior Stephen Clark who finished 29^th in the men's 800 and sophomore Hannah Goranson who finished 12^th in the women's 100 hurdles with a time of 14.26

Tomorrow will be the final day of the ECAC/IC4A Championships. Some of the key events for the Blue Devils include the women's shot put with junior All-American Michelle Anumba and the men's high jump where the Duke sophomore Duo of Tanner Anderson and Michael Krone will face stiff competition from Penn's Maalik Reynolds. All three men have cleared 7-3 this season.

A full recap will be available at www.GoDuke.com.

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