UNF Wraps Up Spring Break Invitational
3/6/2010 5:49:47 PM | Men's Track, Women's Track
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida men's and women's track and field teams wrapped up the day on a high note with sophomore Christina King breaking the pole vault school record in the last event at the UNF Spring Break Invitational.
“Overall I think the meet went very well,” said head track and field coach Mark VanAlstyne. “We put over 2,000 athletes through this facility. We had a lot of northern teams and I feel that we represented UNF and the city of Jacksonville very well.”
“Coming into the meet I was not sure of what to expect just having the Atlantic Sun Indoor Championships last weekend and our athletes putting so much into that, but we still had records broken and personal bests over the weekend.”
The Ospreys' relay teams both excelled on the track with the women picking up first and the men finishing fifth in the 4x400m relay. Women's “A” team consisting of Charisma Anderson, Jaybria Calcote, Kayla Conrad and SaLydia James took first by beating Winthrop by two seconds (3:49.05).
“The 4x400m relay team narrowly missed beating the 1996 team's school record (made up of Melanie Brown, Katy Gostage, Leanne Moore and UNF's current assistant track and field coach Le'Titia Silas). I know that will be one record they will be aiming for to beat before the end of the season,” said VanAlstyne.
The men clocked a 3:20.02, which was made up of Justin Mims, Nick Squillace, James Post and Ashdon Mills. UNF's 4x400m relay team was good enough for a school record.
“The men breaking the 4x400m school record was exciting to see,” said VanAlstyne. “I thought the men ran well for the entire meet.”
In the distance events, North Florida's women placed third, fourth and fifth to earn 15 points for the Ospreys' overall score in the 1500m. In the event, Conrad (4:54.71), Brooke Baumann (4:55.33) and Hillary Adams (4:56.68) all finished with in seconds of each other.
In the sprints, senior Charisma Anderson placed second in the 200m with a time of 24.58 and James placed fifth (24.86). Calcote (25.29) just missed scoring a point for North Florida getting ninth place out of the 47 competitors.
Anderson took a third place finish in the finals of the 100m with her time of 12.14 in the finals just hundredths of a second off of her time of 12.08 in yesterday's prelims. North Florida also placed fifth through eighth sixth with Anne DelBovo (12.40), Bonnie Stratton (12.44), Jennifer Smyth (12.80) and Keva Stephens (12.91), respectively.
In the field events King placed second in the pole vault with her height of 3.65m. The previous outdoor record was set by DelBovo (3.55m), who finished the day in fourth with her vault of 3.35m.
In the triple jump Jennifer Smyth shined with her fifth place finish of a distance of 11.28m. In the finals of the women high jump senior Elise Trexler scored a first-place finish with her height of 1.65m.
“It was great to see Elise win the high jump and long jump,” commented VanAlstyne. “Elise had not done the long jump since high school. She put it out there and made them chase after her.”
The UNF Spring Break Invitational is the first of three meets that Hodges Stadium will see this season, as the Ospreys will host the UNF Osprey Challenge on April 17 and then the Atlantic Sun Outdoor Championships on May 14.
The Ospreys will have a couple of weeks off before their next meet at the USF Bulls Invitational on March 19.
