Centre women finish third at SCAC Championships

The 2012 SCAC Championship meet is in the books from the campus of Birmingham Southern, and the Centre women's track and field team took third place at the event. Their score of 123 points was the most ever recorded by a Centre women's track and field team at a conference championship meet. Top three finishers earned all-conference honors and top eight finishers scored points for their teams.

Centre scored 123 points at the meet, finishing behind Rhodes and Trinity. Birmingham Southern and Millsaps rounded out the top five teams.

The Colonels had three all-conference performances today, two by individuals and one by a relay team. In the lone throwing event of the day, senior Emily Niehaus (Cincinnati, Ohio) took second place with a distance of 34.95 meters. She was joined in the scoring column by senior Loran Crowell (Salvisa, Ky.), who took eighth place with a throw of 32.62 meters.

The 4x400 relay team of senior Emily Grinstead (Smiths Grove, Ky.), junior Julie Fleming (Crescent Springs, Ky.), freshman Lilly Campbell (Louisville, Ky.) and sophomore Vanessa Bacorn (North Brunswick, N.J.) took third place with a time of 4:07.99, and all four runners also scored in other events.  Campbell took all-conference honors in the 100m hurdles with a third place time of 15.54, and also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles. Grinstead, Fleming and Bacorn all took home seventh place finishes in the 400m hurdles, the 400m and the 200m, respectively.

Campbell was joined in the hurdles scoring column by sophomore Stephanie Hale (Nicholasville, Ky.), who took seventh place in the 400m hurdles and eighth place in the 100m hurdles.

In the long distance events, freshman Hannah Ellis (Crestwood, Ky.) scored in two races for the Colonels, taking eighth place in both the 1500m and the 800m. Senior Bekah Rehkamp (Florence, Ky.) finished fifth in the 1500m with a time of 4:59.22. Sophomore Cheyenne Evans (Danville, Ky.) finished seventh in the 800m with a time of 2:22.38. Freshman Emily Akin (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished eighth in the women's 5K with a time of 19:32.01. Rounding out the scoring for the Colonels was sophomore Mackenzie Dingle (Dunstable, Mass.), who finished fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 35-06.00, breaking the school record she set earlier this year.

The NCAA Championships will begin on May 24. The top 23 performers in each event across the country will be invited to compete at Nationals. In the meantime, the Colonels will be sending athletes to three different meets in an effort to increase their chances of posting a top 23 time. The first of these meets will be on May 4 at the Billy Hayes Invitational, hosted by Indiana University.