Charles Earns All-America Honors
June 8, 2006
Sacramento, Calif. (hurricanesports.com) – Junior Tabia Charles (Pickering, Ontario) earned All-America honors in the long jump, and senior Dominique Darden (Harrisburg, Pa.) and 4×400-meter relay posted impressive performances to highlight the second day of competition of the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif.
Charles, the ACC Champion, recorded a leap of 6.26 meters (20-06.50) to earn All-America honors for the ninth time in her career. The total ties for the third highest in UM history.
Charles, who ranked No. 1 in the nation in the triple jump, will begin her quest for a tenth All-American honor with preliminary competition in that event on Friday.
Darden, a 12-time All-American, cruised to victory in her preliminary heat of the 400-meter hurdles to advance to Friday’s semifinals. The ACC and NCAA East Regional Champion finished first in a time of 56.56 seconds, the fastest time of the qualifying round.
Despite running the fastest time of prelims Darden was not happy with her performance. “The race did not go as I had planned,” said Darden. “I thought I ran a sloppy race. In the semis I need to work on my final 150 and hopefully bring in the fastest time again.”
Darden, who ranks third in the nation and has the 10th fastest time in the world this season, has now won seven consecutive races, both preliminaries and finals, including major victories at the Penn Relays, the ACC Championships and the NCAA East Regional.
Led by senior All-Americans Ginou Etienne (Miami Central) and Charlette Greggs (Miami Northwestern), Miami’s top ranked 4×400-meter relay put on an impressive performance in the semifinals winning its heat in a time of 3:29.98, the fastest of the preliminaries.
Etienne, running the second leg, took the handoff from freshman Krista Simkins (Ambler, Pa.) and posted a split of 50.9 seconds to move the Hurricanes from fourth to first. Another UM freshman, Ena Leufroy (Atlanta, Ga.), running the third leg, extended the Hurricanes lead before handing off to Greggs who ran a 51.7 split to give Miami the win.
“I was really happy with their performance today,” said head coach Amy Deem of the relay. “They ran a very controlled race, and Ginou (Etienne) gave a great performance. But that isn’t a surprise because she has been very consistent all season long.”
Miami is now in the final of both the 4×100-meter relay and 4×400-meter relay for the fourth consecutive season. Miami and South Carolina, who has also reached the both finals, are the only to programs to have finalists in both relays in each of the last four season.
In the 100-meters India Ransom (Largo, Md.) placed sixth in her preliminary heat with a time of 11.77 seconds and did not advance to the semifinals. Also competing on Thursday was Akera Lathan (Miami Southridge) in the preliminaries of the shot put. Lathan recorded a toss of 15.41 meters (50-06.75) and failed to qualify for the final.
