Middle Distance Leads Solid Women's Performance on Final Day of #ASunTF Championships

Saturday, May 16

9:00 a.m.

University of North Florida

Atlantic Sun Championship

Photo by: ASUN Photos

Middle Distance Leads Solid Women's Performance on Final Day of #ASunTF Championships

5/16/2015 10:43:00 PM | Women's Track

By: North Florida Athletics

Saturday Results (pdf)

JACKSONVILLE -- Paced by a pair of silver medalist, the North Florida women's track and field team earned a fourth-place finish at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship on Saturday at Hodges Stadium.

The Ospreys concluded the two-day event with 105 points. A quartet of 1,500m performers were one of the high points of the day with all four runners scoring points for UNF. Alessandra Valdes led the quartet finishing second in 4:28.90 while Elle Baker was third at 4:33.00. Alexis Irwin was sixth (4:38.94) and Emily Stallings finished eighth (4:40.17) to round out the scoring.

Vanessa Philbert claimed UNF's other silver medal after racing a personal record 2:09.56 in the 800m. Freshman teammate Dagmar Olsen also scored in the event finishing seventh in 2:14.11.

Other scoring performances for the Ospreys on Saturday included Emily Miller (5'05") and Alyssa Young (5'03") finishing third and fourth, respectively, in the high jump, Eden Meyer finishing fourth in the 5000m (17:08.16), Alyssa Younker's seventh place finish in the 400m hurdles and Vernetia Irving's sixth place finish in 100m (12.16) and seventh place showing in 200m with a PR of 24.71. UNF tennis standout Taylor Hollander also scored points for North Florida after posting a seventh place toss of 105'11" in the javelin.

"First of all want to say how proud I am of the UNF Athletic staff for again putting on a tremendous meet," said head coach Jeff Pigg. "We got lots of compliments from the other coaching staffs and also saw some great performances. I am especially proud of how our kids competed and it felt like everytime they were presenting medals we had a North Florida kid on the podium, so that was exciting to be a part of. We had a lot of kids run their best career times or best times of the season or beat people they weren't supposed to, which allowed them to finish the year on a high note and head come feeling good."

"Eden coming back and running well in the 5000m after a great 10k last night was great and I was really proud of her," added Pigg. "Vanessa's run in the 800m was really good as she finishehd second in a loaded field. I thought the 1500m was a huge event for us with Ale and Elle finishing second and third and then Alexis and Emily also scoring points. That is an event we definitely need to have strong performances."

North Florida as a team has completed competition but several individual athletes are in the hunt to participate in the NCAA East Preliminary on May 28-30 at Hodges Stadium and will find out their fates early this coming week.

Saturday – May 16
100m
6. Vernetia Irving – 12.16

200m
7. Vernetia Irving – 24.71 PR
10. Raneisha Lamar – 25.01 PR

400m Hurdles
7. Alyssa Younker – 1:05.02

800m
2. Vanessa Philbert – 2:09.56 PR
7. Dagmar Olsen – 2:14.11
11. Morgan Rodriguez – 2:17.51
12. Alessandra Valdes – 2:17.63

1500m
2. Alessandra Valdes – 4:28.90
3. Elle Baker – 4:33.00
6. Alexis Irwin – 4:38.94
8. Emily Stallings – 4:40.17

5000m
4. Eden Meyer – 17:08.16
10. Lauren Gonzalez – 18:28.21

4x100m Relay
4. R. Lamar/V. Irving/ H. Grimes/ A. Younker – 47.00

4x400m Relay
3. H. Grimes/A. Younker/D. Olsen/V. Philbert – 3:49.29

High Jump
3. Emily Miller – 1.65m (5'05")
4. Alyssa Young – 1.60m (5'03")

Javelin
7. Taylor Hollander – 32.28m (105'11")