@CanesTrack Charges on Day 2 at ACC Championships
ATLANTA – The University of Miami track and field program earned its first medal of the 2017 ACC Outdoor Championships on Saturday.
Erika Voyzey won a bronze medal in the women’s high jump. The freshman finished third with a mark of 1.73m to score six points for the Miami women.
Amy Taintor finished seventh in the women’s heptathlon with a score of 5,180 points. Building off a strong performance on Day 1, Taintor opened Saturday’s competition with a victory in the heptathlon long jump with a mark of 6.09m. She followed with a mark of 23.40m in the javelin and closed the day with a time of 2:21.35 in the 800m.
Stefani Kerrison scored four points for Miami’s women’s team with a fifth-place finish in the women’s long jump, posting a mark of 6.14m. Taintor also scored a pair of points in the long jump, finishing seventh with a mark of 5.97m.
“Every point counts,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “To get two people in the long jump final, which we weren’t expected to do, was big. Erika, I felt strongly that she could come in and get third or fourth and she did that. I am really proud of her to come in and score indoor and outdoor as a freshman. We’ve got to run big in the relays and sprints and hurdles and score points in the discus and triple jump to be in contention tomorrow.”
In addition to the 14 points scored on Saturday, Miami also had eight student-athletes earn spots in Sunday’s finals.
The Hurricanes will have the top three seeds in the women’s 400m final on Sunday, as Shakima Wimbley, Brittny Ellis and Aiyanna Stiverne impressed during Saturday’s preliminaries. Wimbley won heat 4 with a time of 51.75 seconds that is fastest in the ACC this season, while Ellis’s time of 51.92 seconds won Heat 3 and ranks second-best in the conference and third in UM history. Stiverne won Heat 5 (52.79 seconds) to complete the trio of advancing Hurricanes.
On the men’s side, Henri Delauze won Heat 4 of the men’s 400m preliminaries with a time of 47.36 seconds to advance to the men’s final.
Ebony Morrison and Kerrison advanced to the women’s 100m hurdles final after strong performances in Saturday’s preliminaries. Morrison won Heat 2 with a time of 13.15 seconds that was second-fastest among all preliminary times, while Kerrison was second in Heat 3 with a time of 13.44 seconds that put her sixth in the preliminaries.
Kristina Knott finished second in Heat 4 in the women’s 100m preliminaries with a time of 11.64 seconds that earned her a spot in Sunday’s final. Isaiah Taylor finished second in Heat 2 of the men’s 100m preliminaries with a time of 10.66 seconds, advancing to the final.
Miami’s Michael Miano also had a collegiate personal-best time in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, posting a time of 9:46.68 that ranks fifth in UM history.
“I thought we did what we needed to do to set ourselves up for tomorrow,” Deem said. “We missed a few things in the field events that I thought could have helped us, but seeing Brittny get back to form in the 400 was great. I feel real good about where we are in the sprints and hurdles at this point. Tomorrow we just have to come out and fight. Florida State is having a great meet and so is Clemson, so it’s going to be a real dogfight tomorrow.”
Through two days of competition, Miami’s women are in ninth place with 15 points and 12 events remaining. The Hurricane men have 13 events remaining in the 2017 ACC Championships.
Competition begins Sunday at 2 p.m., with the men’s high jump, women’s triple jump and men’s discus, while the action on the track opens at 5:03 p.m., with the women’s 4x100m final.
Sunday’s live coverage on ACC Network Extra will air from 5 until the meet’s conclusion.
Following the ACC Outdoor Championships, qualifying Hurricanes will travel to compete at the NCAA East Preliminary in Lexington, Ky., on May 25-27. 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.
