Dominique Price (Burlington, N.C./Cummings), Kimberly
Abel (Marlton, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial), Monique Vines (Raleigh,
N.C./Southeast Raleigh Magnet) and Caitlin Beeler (Cary, N.C./Cardinal
Gibbons) all tallied Elon University women’s indoor track records during
day-one action at the Southern Conference Championships Saturday at the Clemson University Field House.
Price and Jessica Clendenning (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory) became the first Elon athletes to ever claim women’s indoor track league titles as the Phoenix finished sixth in the team competition.
Price improved upon her own program milestones in both the 60-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles during preliminary competition. She sprinted to a first-place finish out of 12 athletes in the 60-meter hurdles preliminaries, clocking in at 8.67 seconds – surpassing her old record of 8.70 seconds.
Price had run that time twice, once last week at the Tiger Invitational and once at last season’s conference meet.
In the 60-meter dash preliminaries, Price finished in fourth place out of eight competitors in her heat. Her time of 7.88 seconds eclipsed her previous program best of 7.91 seconds, which she established at last season’s championships.
Abel scored a program-high 3,056 points to end up third out of 10 competitors in the pentathlon. The previous Elon record of 2,999 points was set by Julia Hicks at last season’s conference meet.
Vines placed fifth out of 18 athletes in the long jump, leaping to a school-record distance of 5.70 meters (18-08.50). She surpassed her own mark of 5.50 meters (18-00.50), set in December.
In the 3,000-meter run, Beeler and teammate Anna Mae Flynn (Banner Elk, N.C./Watauga) scurried to ninth and 11th place, respectively, out of 22 participants. Beeler’s time of 10:19.05 broke Flynn’s school record of 10:28.04, set last month.
Clendenning captured the pole vault crown, placing first out of 12 athletes. She vaulted to a school-record and conference-record performance of 3.97 meters (13-00.25). The previous league record was 3.95 meters, set by Western Carolina’s Laura Tieszen in 2004.
Also surpassing the provisional NCAA qualifying distance of 3.95 meters, Clendenning had just reset her own Elon record at 3.80 meters (12-05.50) last weekend at the Tiger Invitational. Appalachian State’s Shea Snow vaulted to 3.65 meters (11-11.75) for second place in the event.
In the 60-meter hurdles final, Price sprinted to first place by repeating her program-record time from Saturday’s preliminaries at 8.67 seconds.
Clendenning and Price now join teammate Kimberly Abel (Marlton, N.J./Haddonfield Memorial) on the 2007 All-Southern Conference indoor track team. On Saturday, Abel scored a program-high 3,056 points to end up third out of 10 competitors in the pentathlon. The previous Elon record of 2,999 points was set by Julia Hicks at last season’s conference meet.
Elon’s Anna Mae Flynn (Banner Elk, N.C./Watauga) also set an Elon record Sunday, crossing the finish line in the 5,000-meter run at 17:44.19. She placed fifth out of 28 runners. Flynn easily eclipsed her own program milestone of 18:11.47, set earlier this month.
In the team standings, the Phoenix ended up sixth out of the 10 participating institutions. Appalachian State (161 points) finished
first, followed by Western Carolina (159.5), Georgia Southern (122.5), Chattanooga (46), Furman (42), Elon (40), The Citadel (38), Davidson (37), College of Charleston (16) and UNC Greensboro (0).