ETSU track and field completes first meet of indoor season

BOONE, N.C. (Dec. 3, 2011) – Freshman Filip Jalovy (Modrice, Czech Republic) won the mile run with a time of 4:24.30, highlighting an impressive 14 top-5 finishes for the ETSU men’s and women’s track and field teams on Saturday at the Appalachian Collegiate Indoor.                                                            

"This was a great way to start our indoor season and we are very happy with most of the results,” said ETSU assistant coach Eli Sunquist. “We now have a much better idea of where our athletes stand before they head off for break and we can't wait to continue our season in six weeks.  The biggest thing that we were pleased with was how our new athletes were able to perform well in their first-ever collegiate meet.

“We had some good results across the board for both the men and women. This is by far the best and deepest performance that we have ever had at this December meet."

In the sprints, freshman Karissa Bertling (New Port Richey, Fla.) placed third in the women’s 55m with a time of 7.13. The Bucs’ success continued into the women’s 55m hurdles as freshman Demetria Edgecombe (Spartanburg, S.C.) and Nicole Alexander (Rock Hill, S.C.) finished 3rd and 4th with times of 8.41 and 8.42, respectively. Junior Tim O’Dell (Palm Coast, Fla.) competed in the men’s 400m dash, finishing in third with a time of 49.78.

In the distance runs, junior Melissa Peters (Mesa, Ariz.) clocked in at 2:22.99 in the women’s 800m to place third. On the men’s side of the event, Jalovy brought in a second-place finish with a time of 1:55.28 while junior Ryan Jones (Apopka, Fla.) posted a time of 1:57.71 for fifth place.

Junior Kelly Monteleone (Pittsburgh, Pa.) posted multiple top-five finishes in the jumps, placing fourth in the triple jump at 11.71m and third in the long jump with a leap of 5.51m. Newcomer Taylor Story (Germantown, Tenn.) and senior Leah Oakhill (Brisbane, Australia) participated in the high jump and took second and third in the event. Story posted a 1.73m launch, beating her lifetime best by two inches, while Oakhill leapt 1.63m. On the men’s side of the jumps, freshman Jadon Short (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) finished fourth in the long jump with a bound of 7.03m.

Junior local product Jasmine Foster (Johnson City, Tenn.) took home ETSU’s lone top-five in the throws, finishing third in the weight throw with a toss of 15.20m.

The Bucs take the rest of the year off before competing again in the Virginia Tech Invite on January 13-14 in Blacksburg, Va.

For more information on ETSU track and field, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the track and field links.