COMPLETE RESULTS
With sophomore sprinter/jumper Tobi Alli leading the way, the Lehman College Women's team won the 2012 CUNY Athletic Conference/U.S. Army Outdoor Track & Field Championship going away (218 points) on Sunday at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island. It's the Lightning's fifth title in 17 years of the event, and the school's first since sharing the title in 2008.
Not including Alli, the Lehman women received individual medal-winning performances from five different athletes: Jasmine Springer picked up three silver medals; Shantay Beccan added two golds and a silver; newcomer Alicia McDaniel notched a gold, silver and bronze in the throwing events; Aminat Adebayo tallied two silvers, also in the throws; and senior Michaelle Garcon was an ironwoman for the Lightning as she competed in the four distance events (800, 1,500, 5,000, 10,000) and took home a silver and two bronze in her final meet for the Lightning.
When all was said and done, however, it was Alli who stood tallest as she took home six medals overall for the meet, marked by her record-breaking triple jump effort of 12.02 meters, which shattered the previous mark of 11.52 meters set by CCNY's Alecia Watson in 2007. With that leap, Alli also moved up the NCAA Division III charts to No. 8 in the country and booked her ticket to California to compete in the NCAA Championships in two weeks.
Alli's 60 individual points earned her the Championship Most Valuable Performer honor for the second time this year, as she also won the award at the recent CUNYAC Indoor Championships. "This win was really about teamwork," said Alli. "I had some of my best jumps, but we wouldn’t have won without everyone. I’m just grateful they’re my teammates. And now I am really happy about making the NCAAs in the triple jump since I get to go back home to California."
In addition to her eye-opening triple jump performance, Alli took first in the long jump, second in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes, and helped the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams to first place finishes. Medgar Evers' Katisha Simmons kept Alli from having a truly historic day by edging her in both sprint events, including Simmons' last instant lean that edged Alli by the slimmest of margins in the 200 (0.01 seconds).
Two women's championship records were broken by All-Americans. Alli demolished the Women's Triple Jump record by half-a-meter, jumping a distance of 12.02m. The previous record was 11.52m held by CCNY's Alecia Watson in 2007. On the track, Bronx CC's Ashley Armand shattered the previous 800m dash record of 2:17.64 held by Claudette Hetmeyer (BCC) with a new time of 2:14.4. Armand became the NJCAA National Champion in the event two weeks ago.
"First of all it feels good to get an outdoor title, that seems to be the one toughest for us to win," said veteran Lehman head coach Lesleigh Hogg. "The group overcame a lot of obstacles and pulled together. We got points in areas we hadn’t expected. We had a win by Alicia McDaniel in the Hammer Throw that wasn’t expected. Tobi stepped up big with 60 points, 25 percent of our total. We asked one veteran, Michaelle Garcon, to run over 10 miles for the weekend, and she scored for us."
Hunter College finished in second place in the team standings for the third consecutive year with 150 points, followed closely by the defending champions, CCNY with 141 points. Medgar Evers College slotted fourth with 33 points and York College did not score as team due to insufficient participation.
"We got points from people who just did it on grit; they were brand new to track and field and they just stepped up," conlcuded Hogg. "We had an idea that we could win, but to do it in this fashion by scoring 218 points makes it very, very gratifying."
Following their domination in the 10,000 Meters to days earlier, Hunter was strong in the distance events, as has been the case all season long. In the 5000 meter run a trio of Hawks earned medals. Donna Mahoney led the squad, capturing her second gold medal of the meet in 19:42.47. Jacklyn Henderson took silver in 20:09.42 and Johanna Keilwitz rounded out the trio with a bronze in a time of 21:34.41. Henderson and Mahoney traded places in the 1500 meter run to seize the top two spots as Henderson took gold in a time of 5:02.38 and Mahoney grabbed silver in 5:10.83. Henderson continued her impressive day with a four-year college gold medal in the 800 meter run with a 2:30.2 timestamp.
Other senior college winners included Medgar Evers freshman standout Katisha Simmons, who qualified for the NCAA Championships in two weeks time with an impressive 12.09 time in the 100 Meter Dash. York's Maria Suero-Santos, who won the javelin with a heave of 27.54 in the finals. The Beavers' Ramatulai Bah won the Shot Put (10.58 meters), while Shannon Finucane won the Discus Throw event with a toss of 24.81 meters.
For the Community Colleges, it was a runaway race for Queensborough CC, who scored 146 points, to top Kingsborough CC (68) and Bronx CC (20).
"We had some really good sprinters this year, we had a 1-2 finish in the 400 Dash and we had a solid compliment of distance runners around Younes [Benzaid]," said longtime QCC head coach Chris Olmeltchenko. "We had a nice group of expereinced athletes this year to go along with our rookies. I'm really proud of this team."
For a completes list of winners and results, please consult the link at the top of the page.
Outdoor Track & Field Championship Central for links & results
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