Indoor Track & Field

Louisville, SMU in Command Following Day One of Indoor Championships

Day One Men’s Results
 
Day One Women’s Results
 
Indoor Track & Field Championship Central
 
NEW YORK, N.Y. – With day one of the American Athletic Conference Championships at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory complete, the Louisville men hold a strong upper hand through five scored events with 59 points. On the women’s side, the competition is tight, with SMU leading by a three-point margin over Louisville, 44 to 39 points, through six scored events.
 
Following the Cardinals in second in the men’s meet is Memphis with 36 points, with UConn third with 26 points and Houston fourth with 24. UConn sits third in the women’s meet with 33 points, followed closely by Memphis with 28.5 points.
 
Several stellar marks and surprising performances highlighted the day. No surprise, however, was Rutgers junior Corey Crawford’s leap in the men’s long jump. Crawford, who has led the conference all season, posted an outstanding distance of 8.22m (26’-11.75”) to easily take the event and also jump atop the NCAA Division I list.
 
Impressing in the women’s competition was Emily Durgin of UConn. The sophomore took home two gold medals on day one alone, winning the 5,000-meter run in 16:47.81 and anchoring the Huskies’ Distance Medley Relay to a win. She teamed with Laura Williamson, Nyanka Joseph and Maggie Christe to cross the line in 11:36.25.
 
Senior Asha Ruth of Rutgers completed the long jump sweep for Rutgers, winning the event with a distance of 6.19m (20’-3.75”) and earning the best mark in the conference this season.
 
The first-place Cardinal men earned two event wins and a podium sweep on the afternoon. Sam Bombaugh won his second-straight conference indoor weight throw title, launching a season-best 19.16m (62’-10.5”) toss. The 5,000-meter run belonged to Louisville as well, as Ernest Kibet won gold in 14:31.16. He was followed closely by teammate Edwin Kibichiy, who placed second in 14:31.98, and Tyler Byrne in third with a time of 14:32.36.
 
Guillaume Victorin was also a prominent performer for Louisville, taking second in the long jump, along with the Distance Medley Relay team that also picked up a silver medal.
 
Both the men’s and women’s pole vault featured upsets according to the pre-meet seeding. Memphis clinched a 1-2 finish on the men’s side, with Pauls Pujats taking the event, vaulting a height of 5.45m (17’-10.5”) to set a new Memphis record, which topped the previous Tiger mark set in 2011 by Pauls’ brother Karlis. Teammate Austin Crenshaw picked up the second-place finish for the Tigers with a height of 5.25m (17’-2.75”).
 
Cincinnati Alyssa McBride won the women’s vault, picking up a personal record in the event with a height of 4.18m (13’-8.5”). McBride’s victory marked the third-consecutive indoor conference win for Cincinnati in the women’s pole vault.
 
Lucija Cvitanovic anchored the day for SMU right from the beginning, taking the opening women’s pentathlon with 3,854 points. Her supporting cast included third, fourth and fifth place finishes by a herd of Mustangs in the 5,000-meter run, a third-place Distance Medley Relay finish and a third-place mark in the weight throw from Rayann Chin.
 
The Louisville women were able to sneak into second place to close the day, passing UConn for second place thanks to an event victory from Patrice Gates in the weight throw. Gates tossed a distance of 20.06m to go along with second place finishes from Brittany Owens in the long jump and the Cardinals’ Distance Medley Relay team.
 
Today’s sprint and middle distance preliminaries gave insight into tomorrow’s finals, with runners from the Houston men taking the top trial marks in the 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash.
 
The women’s preliminaries featured many of those on the bests list staying true to form. Stephanie Kalu of SMU matched her season-best in the 60-meter dash trials, with Sade-Mariah Greenidge taking the top mark in the 60-meter hurdles. Houston also took the top two 200-meter dash prelim times, and a host of UCF Knights made appearances in the sprint trials as well.
 
Tomorrow’s battle for the team titles will begin at 9 a.m. with the completion of the men’s heptathlon, followed by the remainder of the field and track events.
 
MEN’S TEAM STANDINGS
1.         Louisville         59
2.         Memphis          36
3.         UConn              26
4.         Houston           24
5.         Rutgers            19
6.         Cincinnati        13
7.         USF                  11
8.         Temple             8
 
WOMEN’S TEAM STANDINGS
1.         SMU                 44
2.         Louisville         39
3.         UConn              33
4.         Memphis         28.5
5.         Houston           18.5
6.         UCF                  18
            Cincinnati        18
8.         USF                  16
            Rutgers            16
10.      Temple             3
 
Men’s 5,000-meter Run
1.            Ernest Kibet, Louisville                   14:31.16
2.            Edwin Kibichiy, Louisville               14:31.98
3.            Tyler Byrne, Louisville                    14:32.36
4.            Chris Banafato, Rutgers                 14:39.41
5.            Alan Izewski, Temple                     14:39.46
6.            Kevin Fink, Cincinnati                     14:44.53
 
Men’s Distance Medley Relay
1.            Houston                                               10:00.30
2.            Louisville                                              10:03.75
3.            UConn                                                  10:05.06
4.            Memphis                                             10:05.75
5.            Rutgers                                                 10:12.69
6.            Cincinnati                                            10:13.39
 
Men’s Pole Vault
1.            Pauls Pujats, Memphis                  5.45m
2.            Austin Crenshaw, Memphis        5.25m
3.            Craig Hunter, UConn                      5.10
4.            Cory Duggan, UConn                      5.10m
5.            Josh Dangel, Cincinnati                  5.10m
6.            Michael Mahnke, Houston          4.95m
 
Men’s Weight Throw
1.            Sam Bombaugh, Louisville            19.16m
2.            Oluwatosin Edwards, UConn      17.80m
3.            Devin Screen, USF                           17.33m
4.            Brad Vivace, Louisville                    17.27m
5.            Tom Willcox, Memphis                  17.13m
6.            Luke Vaughn, Memphis                 16.98m
 
Men’s Long Jump
1.            Corey Crawford, Rutgers              8.22m
2.            Guillaume Victorin, Louisville      7.91m
3.            John Horton, Houston                   7.51m
4.            Kevin Bell, USF                                  7.45m
5.            Antwan Dickerson, Houston       7.31m
6.            Ben Williams, Louisville                  7.29m
 
Women’s Pentathlon
1.            Lucija Cvitanovic, SMU                   3,854 pts
2.            Rachel Klinger, USF                         3,841 pts
3.            Cassie Wiley, Houston                   3,828 pts
4.            Kaitlyn Good, Cincinnati                                3,794 pts
5.            Lisa Egarter, SMU                             3,793 pts
6.            Kiersten LaRoche, Temple           3,579 pts
 
Women’s 5,000-meter Run
1.            Emily Durgin, UConn                       16:47.81
2.            Lauren Sara, UConn                        16:54.08
3.            Agnes Sjostrom, SMU                    16:54.75
4.            Melanie Stemper, SMU                                16:56.26
5.            Shanoah Souza, SMU                     17:06.04
6.            Agnes Chepchumba, Louisville   17:21.52
 
Women’s Distance Medley Relay
1.            UConn                                                  11:36.25
2.            Louisville                                              11:41.36
3.            SMU                                                      11:44.78
4.            Rutgers                                                 11:47.59
5.            Memphis                                             11:50.66
6.            Houston                                               11:51.32
 
Women’s Pole Vault
1.            Alyssa McBride, Cincinnati                           4.18m
2.            Clara Amat-Fernandez, Memphis             4.08m
3.            Karley King, Houston                                      3.98m
                Sabrina Hochreuther, Memphis                   3.98m
5.            Carolina Carmichael, Memphis                   3.88m
6.            Chanel Krause, Louisville                              3.88m
 
Women’s Long Jump
1.            Asha Ruth, Rutgers                                         6.19m
2.            Brittany Owens, Louisville                            6.17m
3.            Jen Clayton, UCF                                              6.15m
4.            Natasha Stewart, USF                                    6.07m
5.            Bre’Yana Wash, Louisville                             6.06m
6.            Sarah Bowens, UConn                                   5.97m
 
Women’s Weight Throw
1.            Patrice Gates, Louisville                                   20.06m
2.            Destinee Romain, UCF                                   19.79m
3.            Rayann Chin, SMU                                           19.18m
4.            Cyarra Wells, Memphis                                 18.63m
5.            Kalen Hambrick, UCF                                      18.60m
6.            Nicole Benton, Houston                                   18.05m