|
LANCASTER, PA - The tenth annual Centennial Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships are set for Saturday-Sunday, March 1-2, at Ursinus College. The heavy favorites to win the men's meet, Haverford College has won eight of the nine championships, missing out on only the 1999 title claimed by Franklin & Marshall College. The Dickinson women's team has won four straight titles and a Conference-best five championships in all to remain the favorites to repeat. For the Franklin & Marshall men's team, which is coming off a fifth place finish in last year's championships, defending CC champion Luke Oeding (Sr., Lancaster, PA/Manheim Township) is heavily favored to win the pole vault. Already this season, Oeding has cleared 15-3 to make the NCAA provisional standard for the Championships and reset the Centennial Conference and Franklin & Marshall College records in the event. However, he may face tough competition from Scott Ashman of Gettysburg, who has cleared 14-9 1/4, and 14-6 vaulter Jeff Barton of Haverford. At last year's championships, Oeding shattered his own record and won the event with a then F&M best height of 14-7 3/4. The height tied him with Ashman, but Oeding took the event's championship due to fewer misses leading up to the height. Muhlenberg's Jason App was third with a height of 14-1. This year, App is ranked fifth coming into the championships with a height of 14-0 to fall behind fourth ranked Drew Edsall of Gettysburg who has cleared 14 -3 1/4. Another event to watch will be the men's 400 meters as Andrew Thompson (So., Windsor, CT/Loomis-Chaffee) is ranked second with a time of 49.94 as four Centennial Conference runners have broken the 50 seconds mark this year. Going into the championships, Chauvaun Johnson of Dickinson is the favorite as he ranks first with a Centennial Conference record time of 49.41. Gettysburg's Phil Ferraro (49.94) and Haverford's Garvey Camilien (49.95) are also among the front-runners. He should also fair well in the 800 meter run as he enters the event ranked third in a time of 1:56.42, less than three seconds behind the 2003 Conference best time of 1:53.51 set by Haverford's Greg Bielecki and the runner-up time of 1:54.01 of Muhlenberg's Will Elson. In the 200 meters, Thompson is seeded fourth in 23.14, less than a second off the CC record time of 22.21 set by Johns Hopkins Quinlan Amos earlier this year. Johnson (22.74) and Ferraro (22.94) are also ranked ahead of Thompson as the sophomore will look to stun the Conference and pick up wins in both events in his second year on the Diplomats. In women's action, Bryn Benford (So., Malvern, PA/Great Valley) will be a contender for the triple jump title as she enters competition with a season best leap of 33-7 1/2, the third best distance in the CC this year. On the track, Jeanette Finster (Jr., LaCanada, CA/Flintridge Preparatory) could finish in the top five in the 400 meters as the junior is ranked seventh in the latest Conference best times report with a time of 1:02.16, less than four seconds off top-seeded Joanna Silver of Gettysburg who enters the championships with a time of 58.84. In the 800 meters, eighth seeded Tara Cooney (Fr., Douglaston, NY/St. Francis) will battle it out with top ranked Callie Bradley of Dickinson (2:18.63) for the title. Cooney is ranked in the event based on a school record time of 2:26.78 established on February 1 in Lancaster during the Annual Iannicelli Invitational. Daily results and information on the Centennial Conference Indoor Track Championships is available at http://198.17.40.106/content.asp?page=wintersports/ITrack/ CCC.html&tab=wintersports
|
