Saturday, January 24, 2004

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Jan. 24, 2004) - Competition in the second Niswonger Track and Field Invitational hosted by East Tennessee State University wrapped up Saturday night at the Mini-Dome, overall it was the 26th anniversary of the spring meet. ETSU took the award stand twice during the night's competition. Chantelle Vernon (Markham, Ontario) finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.65 and Brad Yewer (Newbury, England) finished second in the mile run with a time of 4:16.57. "Chantelle had a solid performance, but was not as technically sound as she was in the prelims," commented assistant coach Michelle Byrne. "Next weekend she will be able to work on that while getting another race under her belt." "Brad ran a real gutsy race tonight. You could tell that he was hurt, but was still able to focus and come out and beat his competition," stated Byrne. "Last night he performed solid in the 3000 meters and it is difficult to run back-to-back races." The Bucs' James Rainer (Alcoa, Tenn.) qualified Friday night for the 60-meter finals and placed fifth Saturday with a time of 6.89. Byrne commented, "James had a rough fall and was hurt for a while. Over break he trained hard and has shown with today's race that he is in form and will continue his dedication throughout the season." Senior Chad Hyder (Kingsport, Tenn.)made his mark in the shot put with a fourth place finish. His longest throw was 15.15m. "Chad opened up this season with a bigger throw than he has in the past. He threw well and I believe he'll get out past 50 feet this year." In the morning's unseeded distance runs sophomore Christine Ward (Candler, N.C.) made a strong impression with her finish of 19:29.36 in the 5000-meter race. "I'm really proud of her performance," said Byrne. "She ran solid in cross country this past season and is building on that with our volunteer assistant Catherine Berry." "Overall, the team performed well this weekend, but we need to focus on team goals and have more people competing on Saturday night in the future." Complete results for Friday's and Saturday's events are available online at www.flashresults.com/etsu.