Wimbley & Cook Lead @MiamiTrack at ACCs
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The University of Miami track and field program closed out the 2015 ACC Indoor Championships with a pair of gold medal performances.
Shakima Wimbley won gold in the women’s 200m with a personal-best time of 23.08 that ranks third in UM history. The sophomore earned her second medal of the day and broke the previous ACC Indoor Championships mark of 23.16 set by Miami’s Murielle Ahoure in 2009. With Wimbley’s successful defense of her 2014 gold medal, Miami student-athletes now own six all-time first-place finishes in the women’s 200 meters at the ACC Indoors.
Wimbley’s first medal was silver, finished second in the women’s 400m final with a time of 52.15 seconds. Kelsey Balkwill placed sixth overall in the women’s 400m final with a personal-best time of 54.14 seconds. Wimbley and Balkwill combined to score 11 points for the women’s team.
Christian Cook earned a gold medal in the men’s 60m hurdles, running a personal-best time of 7.79 seconds that ranks third in UM history. The senior’s blazing time resulted in an individual ACC indoor title for Cook and 10 points for Miami’s men. Miami claimed the ACC Championship men’s 60-meter hurdles gold medal for the fifth time in seven seasons.
“With my mentors being previous champions Cory Nelms and Devon Hill, it’s always been a goal to earn a gold medal for myself,” Cook said. “It’s a great feeling to know that I am up there with the elite hurdlers at Miami.”
Josh Johnson, Jaalen Jones and Henri Delauze combined for six points for Miami’s men. Johnson finished sixth in the men’s 60m final with a time of 6.92 seconds, scoring three points. Jones added two points with a seventh place finish in the 200m final, posting a time of 21.66 seconds. Delauze placed eighth in the men’s 400m final with a time of 48.72 seconds, adding a point to the men’s team tally.
John-Patrick Friday scored in his third event of the weekend, placing fifth in the men’s triple jump with a mark of 15.50m. The junior also tied for third in the high jump with a school record mark of 2.11m and fifth in the long jump with a mark of 7.40m. Friday accounted for 13.50 of the Hurricane men’s points at the 2015 ACC Indoor Championships.
Stefani Kerrison placed sixth in the women’s 60m hurdles final with a time of 8.50 seconds, while Kayann Richards finished seventh with a time of 8.56 seconds. The duo combined to score five points for Miami’s women.
Taneisha Cordell placed eighth in the women’s 800m final with a time of 2:16.14, scoring a point for the UM women.
The women’s 4x400m relay of Balkwill, Cordell, Wimbley and Anthonia Moore combined to finish fourth overall with a time of 3:38.14, scoring the women’s final five points at the 2015 ACC Indoor Championships.
The men’s 4x400m relay of Robert Grant, Delauze, Cook and Johnson closed out the Hurricanes’ stay in Blacksburg, running a time of 3:15.08 to place eighth and score the men’s final point of the weekend.
As a team, Miami’s women placed seventh with 48 points, while the Hurricane men placed eighth with 37.5 points.
“I am very happy with some of our performances this weekend,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “I thought Shakima, JP, Lea and Christian really stepped up. We just didn’t have enough of those performances. We’ve got to get back on track and get more people scoring.”
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