2008 Woodie Awards
URI women place third at A-10 track and field championships
Brett McDermott
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Sports
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Defending champion University of Charlotte ran away with first place, putting together a final score of 180 points. Rhody was a fixture in the second place spot but was edged out late in the afternoon by Dayton University.
Head coach Laurie Felt Melnick had mixed emotions about the meet.
"I'm a little disappointed we didn't get second," Melnick said. "But we really did have some great performances."
On Saturday the spotlight shone especially bright on a few URI athletes.
By the end of the day, two Rhody competitors had earned their way to first-team all conference honors.
Junior TyLynn Graham found her ticket to the all conference team to be a gold medal in the high jump. Graham's leap of 1.7 meters had her looking down at the competition. Sophomore Shayna Daugherty grabbed the silver medal in the event. Graham also contributed to the 55-meter hurdles and finished seventh with a time of 8.54 seconds.
Senior Sarah Thornton was the other Rhody whose impressive efforts propelled her to first-team all conference. It appears that she saved her best performance for her final season.
Her day could have been something torn right out of a Hollywood script, and it all started with her singing the national anthem in front of a packed Mackal Field House. Along with a gold medal, her A-10 championships record setting heave of 18.87 meters in weight throw earned her the title of "Most Outstanding Field Performer."
This throw was enough to edge out teammate and fellow senior Jasmine Jennings, who took the gold in this event at last year's championship. Thornton admitted to the high level of competition between these two teammates.
"Last year I placed second and it has definitely been itching at me," Thornton said. "Today is an exciting day for me."
Jennings was not to be outdone by her teammate in the shot put, though. Her toss of 13.51 meters earned her a third place finish, and second medal of the day. Thornton was not far behind, placing in fifth. Senior Kolleen McCauley finished second in the 500-meter run with a time of 1:15:48. She was elated with her first A-10 championship experience.
"I have never run the 500 in the A-10s before. No one knew who I was, so I used that to my advantage," McCauley said. "Once I realized I was passing them, I said, 'What is holding me back?'"
Senior Stephanie Gregory took home a silver medal in the pole vault with a leap of 3.45 meters. Junior Amy Krajewski finished fourth in the 800-meter run, finishing the race 2:18:17. She credited her teammates with helping her.
"I was ranked ninth going in to the race, so this finish is really exciting" Krajewski said. "Good performances like Kolleen's can really become contagious"
One would hope these strong performances will spread throughout the squad when it heads to Boston for the New England championships Feb. 29.