UM Relay Earns All-American Honors
June 10, 2005
Sacramento, Calif. (hurricanesports.com) – Miami’s 4×100-meter relay of junior Dominique Darden (Harrisburg, Pa.), senior Wiande Moore (Spring, Texas), junior India Ransom (Largo, Md.) and freshman Lauren Austin (Oviedo, Fla.) finished seventh in a time of 44.18 seconds earning All-America honors for the third consecutive season.
Miami joins Texas, South Carolina and LSU as the only 4×100-meter relays to earn All-American honors in each of the last three seasons.
Later in the evening Darden returned to the track to place second in her semifinal heat of the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 56.01 seconds to advance to Saturday’s final. Darden, the ACC and NCAA East Regional Champion, posted the fifth fastest time of the semifinals.
In the triple jump, sophomore All-American Tabia Charles (Pickering, Ontario) qualified for Saturday’s final recording a mark of 13.35 meters (43-09.75). Her jump was the fifth best of the preliminaries.
Also competing on Friday was All-American Amber Williams (Succasunna, N.J.) in the first day of the heptathlon. Williams recorded 3,349 points and is in 11th-place after four events. Her point total is an opening day career best.
Williams, who placed fifth in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, opened the day scoring 1040 points by placing fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a heptathlon career best time of 13.57 seconds.
The ACC Champion then followed the hurdles with a mark of 1.63 meters (5-04.25) in the high jump matching her heptathlon season best and scoring an additional 771 points.
Williams added 614 points in shot put posting a mark of 11.29 meters (37-00.50) and was in 15th-place heading into the 200-meters. The senior ended the day strong finishing seventh in the event with a time of 24.60 seconds, scoring 924 points and moving up to 11th at the end of day one.
With the long jump, her best event, the javelin and the 800-meter run scheduled for Saturday, Williams is in a strong position to become the first Hurricane to earn All-American honors in the heptathlon.
FRIDAY'S RESULTS:
Heptathlon (Overall – Day 1)11. Amber Williams, 3349 pts
100-Hurdles (Heptathlon)4. Amber Williams, 13.57 (1040 points)
High Jump (Heptathlon)18. Amber Williams, 1.63m (771 points))
Shot Put (Heptathlon)22. Amber Williams, 11.29m (614 points)
200-Meters (Heptathlon)7. Amber Williams, 24.60 (924 points)
4×100-Meter Relay (Final)7. Miami (Darden, Moore, Ransom, Austin), 44.18
400-Meters (Semifinal)15. Ginou Etienne, 53.59
400-Hurdles (Semifinal)5. Dominique Darden, 56.01
Triple Jump (Qualifying)5. Tabia Charles, 13.35m (43-09.75)
