Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
Sun Belt Conference Championships
Owls Finish Eighth at Sun Belt Indoors
2/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Feb. 25, 2007
The Florida Atlantic University track team competed at the Sun Belt Indoor Track and Field Championships in Jonesboro, AR.
Friederike Feil added to an already stellar year with a fantastic performance over the weekend. The freshman from Germany got off to a fast start by winning the 3000 meters on Saturday night in a time of 10:03.64. She continued her success on Sunday when she ran a 5:07.02 to win the mile. The victories gave FAU its first two individual track titles in the Sun Belt. She was honored as Freshman of the Year and Most Outstanding Women's Track Performer. She is the first Owl ever to be honored as the best individual performer.
The Owl distance runners had a good meet as Monika Grabowiecka placed 8th in the mile and 4th in the 5,000 meters. In the 800 meters, Ashley Wilcox placed 10th and Toni Jackson finished 11th and both had their best times of the season. Patricia Gumbs and Lindsay Glover placed 14th and 17th in that same race, respectively.
The weekend also got off to a good start for the FAU sprinters. On Saturday night, Brandi Prather helped the distance medley relay team to a third place finish in a time of 12:30.55. Yanique Booth also became the first FAU athlete to provisionally qualify for the NCAA National Indoor Championships by running a 7.82 in preliminaries for the 55 meter hurdles.
Sunday, however, would not be as kind to the speedsters as Yanique Booth false started in the 55-meter dash and slipped coming out of the blocks in the 55-meter hurdles and did not officially complete the race. In the 400-meter dash, Brandi Prather false started in the preliminaries and Malika Clary was disqualified for stepping out of her lane. Toyria Mattear was able to finish 8th in the 55-meter hurdles and was the only freshman to make the finals.
"We made some mistakes today, but we will learn from them and improve," said Head Track Coach Alex Smolka. "We are still very excited about our future both in the conference and nationally."
The Owls finished the meet in 8th place and will move outdoors for their next meet, the UCF Outdoor Invitational, Saturday in Orlando.
Players Mentioned
