@CanesTrack Primed for Championship Saturday
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Miami track and field program had a strong showing on the track and in the field events on the second day of competition at the 2017 ACC Indoor Championships.
Six Hurricanes scored points on Friday and Miami earned 14 spots in running event finals, putting the Canes in position to make a big push on the final day of the ACC Indoor Championships.
“It’s tremendous to see what they did today,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “They fed off each other. We even had kids that had big PRs and didn’t make the final. A lot of great things happened in a lot of events across the board. I think we set ourselves up really, really well for tomorrow, but we can’t live off today. We still have to come back tomorrow and execute even better.”
The Hurricanes had a trio of women advance to the finals in the women’s 60m hurdles, led by 2016 ACC silver medalist Ebony Morrison’s season-best-tying time of 8.13 seconds. Morrison enters the final as the top seed, while Michelle Atherley is seeded second after a personal-best time of 8.24 and Stefani Kerrison’s personal-best time of 8.28 seconds seeds her fourth.
Kerrison also had a big day in the women’s long jump, finishing sixth with a personal-best mark of 6.10m. Amy Taintor just missed reaching the finals, finishing 10th with a season-best mark of 5.87m.
Shakima Wimbley led a quartet of Canes advancing in the 200m preliminary, breaking her own ACC Championship record of 23.08 seconds from 2015 with a personal-best time of 22.88 seconds that ranks third in UM history. Brittny Ellis was second to Wimbley in section 1 of the 200m with a personal-best time of 23.59 seconds and is the second seed in Saturday’s final.
Aiyanna Stiverne won section 5 of the 200m preliminaries with a season-best time of 23.67 seconds and Kristina Knott won section 7 with a time of 23.85 seconds to round out Miami’s 200m qualifiers. Carolyn Brown was third in section 1 with a personal-best time of 23.87 seconds, but did not advance to the final, finishing 10th.
The Hurricane women had three student-athletes advance to Saturday’s women’s 400m final. The Canes earned the top three seeds, as Wimbley won section 2 with a time of 52.29 seconds, while Stiverne finished first in section 3 with a season-best time of 53.29 second and Ellis won section four with a personal-best time of 52.78 seconds that ranks fifth in school history.
On the men’s side, Henri Delauze earned a spot in the men’s 400m final after winning section 3 of the preliminaries with a personal-best time of 46.95 seconds that ranks second in UM history.
Knott also earned a spot in the women’s 60m final with a time of 7.38 seconds, while Morrison (7.41) and Brown (7.42) ran personal-bests, but finished ninth and 10th, respectively, to miss the final.
Miami also had two men reach the finals in the 60m, as Myles Valentine and Isaiah Taylor finished first and second in the first of five sections of preliminaries. Valentine ran a time of 6.73 seconds and will be seeded fifth, while Taylor posted a time of 6.77 seconds and will be the seventh seed.
Five Miami women scored on Friday, with Kerrison’s sixth-place finish opening the scoring for the Canes. Erika Voyzey finished fourth in the women’s high jump with a mark of 1.76m, while Celine Thompson finished in a six-way tie for sixth place with a personal-best mark of 1.65m.
Amanda and Emily Gale each set new personal-bests in the women’s pole vault. Amanda finished tied for sixth with a mark of 3.96m, while Emily was tied for eighth at 3.96m. The Gale twins are tied for second all-time in the women’s pole vault in school history.
Andreas Christodoulou scored a point for the men’s team, placing eighth in the men’s heptathlon with a personal-best 5,150 points that rank third in UM history. The sophomore opened the final day of heptathlon competition with a personal-best in the 60m hurdles, winning section 2 and finishing third overall with a time of 8.41 seconds. He posted a mark of 4.20m in the pole vault and closed the day with a time of 2:51.14 in the 1000m. On Thursday, Christodoulou opened the day with a time of 7.22 seconds in the 60m and posted a long jump of 6.80m. The sophomore had a mark of 12.03m in the shot put and closed out the opening day of the heptathlon with a mark of 1.84m in the high jump.
“We did everything we needed to do and more,” Deem said. “The kids just competed tremendously today and I’m just so proud of them. We scrapped to score every point. The twins scored in the pole vault and Erika, who struggled the last couple of weeks and couldn’t even clear a bar 10 days ago at practice—I know she wanted to jump higher, but she scored five points. Celine snuck in and scored another point, which is kind of like the omen from last year with Kyra [Maryland] in the high jump. We’ve just got to get to bed and get ready for tomorrow and go out and compete like we did today.”
Heading into the final day of competition, the defending ACC champion women’s team is in third place with 34 points, while Miami’s men are in 12th place with nine points.
Championship Saturday kicks off at 11 a.m., with the women’s shot put and women’s triple jump, while the running events begin at noon with the women’s 60m hurdles final.
ACC Network Extra will live stream of the final day of competition, with former Olympic decathlon gold medalist Dan O’Brien serving as color analyst, reprising the role he first filled at the 2015 ACC Outdoor Championships. He will be joined by veteran ESPN play-by-play announcer Shawn Kenney. Coverage will air from noon until the meet’s conclusion (approximately 4 p.m.) on Saturday, February 25.
Following the ACC Indoor Championships, qualifying Hurricanes that rank in the top 16 in the NCAA in their events will travel to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, on March 10-11. To view the complete Miami Track and Field schedule for the 2017 season, click here.
For all the latest information on the Miami Hurricanes, follow the official Twitter feed, @MiamiHurricanes, or “Like Us” on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes. Follow @MiamiTrack on Twitter for specific news on UM track and field and cross country. The program is also on Instagram.
