Saturday, April 22, 2000

Johnson City, Tenn. -- The East Tennessee State men's and women's track and field teams completed its participation in the Southern Conference Championships today in Boone, N.C. The meet was hosted by Appalachian State University at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

The ETSU women finished fourth with 77 points. Western Carolina won the meet with 250 points. WCU was followed by Chattanooga, 191; Appalachian State, 106; ETSU; Furman, 68.5; Georgia Southern, 31; The Citadel, 27; VMI, 26.5; UNC Greensboro, 20; Wofford, 12 and Davidson, 8.

The ETSU men meanwhile finished fifth with 67 points. VMI won the men's championship with 217 points. The Keydets were followed by Western Carolina, 182; Appalachian State, 145; The Citadel, 68; ETSU; Chattanooga, 51; Furman, 46; Davidson, 27; Wofford, 5 and UNC Greensboro, 3.

Catherine Berry won both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters to lead the individual efforts for the Bucs. Berry finished the 3,000 with a time of 9:53.10 as ETSU placed three runners in the top five. Tanya Brown finished fourth at 10:40.17 and Kim Hemstreet finished fifth at 10:43.61. In the 5,000, Berry won the race in a dominating 17:14.00. Berry lapped every finisher except Western Carolina's Jenny Warfford who finished second at 18:08.29.

Rosline Addo and Jennifer Howard finished first and second in the 400 meters. Addo finished with a time of :55.98 while Howard finished at :56.46. The results were a repeat of the Addo's and Howard's one-two performance in the Southern Conference Indoor Championship. Howard also finished fourth in the 200 meters with a time of :24.95.

On the men's side, Andrew Whitson led the Bucs with a win in the Decathlon. Whitson finished with 6,287 points, over 700 points in front of the second place finisher. Other individual highlights include Daniel Welsh and Mitchell Jones finish in the 5,000 meters. Welsh finished third with a time of 15:14.48 while Jones finished fifth with a time of 15:25.24. Jason Farr provided the men's other top five finish when he jumped 6'4" in the High Jump.