No. 14 Women's Track & Field excels at Crimson Tide Indoor Opener
Jan. 12, 2013 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The No. 14 Texas Women's Track & Field team took home five individual victories and added a relay win to open the 2013 indoor season on Saturday at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener in Birmingham. "I think we had a great well-rounded performance from the field events to sprints to distance and that's what we're working toward," said interim head coach Rose Brimmer. "Coming into such a competitive meet and facing the defending national champions to start the season, we won a couple of big events and that was excellent. We had several people who [competed in three events] and did very well. We were really working on being able to [compete in two and three events] and also score and it went very well. I thought the team exceeded expectations." Junior Danielle Dowie claimed a pair of individual wins to lead the Longhorns and also ran the quickest leg of Texas' top-finishing 4x400-meter relay team. Dowie won the 400-meter in an indoor personal-best time of 53.95 and was the top finisher in the 200-meter in 23.75. Senior Kendra Chambers, junior Briana Nelson and freshman Courtney Okolo joined Dowie as UT (3:38.22) edged Florida (3:38.65) for the top spot in the relay. Sophomore Morgan Snow picked up an individual victory in the 60-meter hurdles in personal-best fashion, posting a time of 8.26 in the final to earn the win. Snow was the top qualifier out of prelims to earn her spot in the final along with freshman Melissa Gonzalez, who was competing in her first race as Longhorn. Gonzalez placed sixth in the final in 8.76. The Longhorns also found success on the distance side, picking up a win from senior Mia Behm, who was racing in her first event on the track since the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships. Behm ran an indoor personal-best 4:50.23 as the top overall finisher. Junior Brittany Marches, competing in her first indoor Mile as a Longhorn, finished fourth in her heat and ninth overall in 5:01.03. Texas also captured the top two spots in the 3,000-meter. Junior Marielle Hall finished nearly 25 seconds ahead of all other competitors in 9:26.49 and sophomore Megan Siebert crossed second in 9:51.25 in the first indoor race of her collegiate career. Sophomore Jessica Harper placed 11th with a time of 10:11.25. The Longhorns placed two in the top five in the 800-meter in Chambers and junior Katie Hoaldridge. Chambers crossed second in 2:10.72 while Hoaldridge finished fifth in 2:12.63. Four Longhorns competed in the 60-meter dash, including Bernice Bamgbade and Kiersten Duncan, who were both making their Texas debut. Bamgbade qualified eighth in the `A' section out of prelims and placed eighth in the section final in 7.84, while Duncan finished 12th (7.95). Snow earned fourth overall in section `A' in 7.55 after qualifying second in a personal-best time of 7.49. Goodman posted a pair of 7.57 times in the section `B' prelims and finals to finish third. In the field events, sophomore Kaitlin Petrillose also made her Texas debut in pole vault, clearing the top height of 12-11.50 (3.95m) but earning second place by virtue of overall misses. In high jump, junior Shanay Briscoe cleared the second-place height of 5-10.75 (1.80m) but was fifth after tallying previous misses. Sophomore Chamique Francis competed in high jump for the first time as a Longhorn and placed 11th (5-05, 1.65m). Rounding out the field events on the day for Texas was A'Lexus Brannon, who finished sixth in the long jump with a top mark of 19-3.25 (5.87m). Texas placed two more in the top four in the 400m. Okolo won her heat and earned second overall (54.26) and Nelson was fourth (54.89). Five more Longhorns joined Dowie in the 200m with junior Christy Udoh a close second in 23.87. Senior Chalonda Goodman's time of 24.21 was good for fifth, while Francis (24.54) and Nelson (24.59) were eighth and ninth, respectively. Duncan placed 23rd in 25.86. UT's 4x400m relay `B' squad of Goodman, Udoh, Francis and freshman Melissa Gonzalez finished fourth. The Longhorns will travel to Houston on Friday, Jan. 18, to compete in the Leonard Hilton Memorial Invitational at Yeoman Fieldhouse. TEXAS RESULTS - CRIMSON TIDE INDOOR OPENER 60m `A' prelims 60m `A' final 60m `B' prelims 60m `B' final Long jump 60m hurdles `B' prelims 60m hurdles `B' final Pole vault Mile 400m High jump 800m 200m 3,000m 4x400m relay
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