Texas Tech Invitational Women's Results (.pdf)
LUBBOCK – It's only the beginning of women's indoor track season at Angelo State but there's already reason to be excited. Bree Bennett, Andria Nussey, Chrystal Ruiz and Kelsey Wilson all hit NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks and the Rambelles nearly added a fifth with the 4x400-meter relay team as ASU closed out competition at the Texas Tech Invitational Saturday.
Angelo State competed as an indoor track team for the first time in school history on Friday at the Athletic Training Center, but was already making a case for itself on the national scene less than 24 hours later when the Rambelles hit four provisional marks. Bennett and Ruiz were the first to strike for ASU, posting quick times in the 55-meter hurdles. Ruiz ran the third fastest time in preliminaries and was second in her heat after finishing in 8.32 seconds. Bennett ran an 8.60 in the prelims, good enough to qualify for the finals where she matched Ruiz's 8.32 and finished sixth overall.
Wilson logged a vault of 11-07.75 feet, two inches higher than the NCAA D-II provisional mark and finished third overall in the pole vault. Nussey turned in one of the most exceptional performances of the day for ASU when she finished second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.91. The time missed an automatic qualifying mark by a little more than two seconds and is the top NCAA Division II time in the country so far this season.
“We never go into the first meet of the season expecting to get qualifiers,” Angelo State head coach
James Reid said. “We go in thinking that we can, but we're just looking to get things started and are looking two or three weeks down the road to really be able to hit the marks. Part of our success Saturday is the experience returning with this group.
“From top to bottom, we had good performances from everybody for the most part. If you asked a few of them, they might tell you they're disappointed with what they've done, but from a coaching standpoint it's easy for us to come away very excited. We're coming off four weeks of Christmas break and have had only two weeks to train and the weather was horrible for one of those so we didn't get to do everything we wanted to. From the standpoint of this being a starting point, it's really exciting.”
In other highlights, Angelo State's 4x400-meter relay team finished sixth overall with a time of 3:56.11, less than two seconds off the provisional qualifying time; Thrower Kimberly Williams finished second in the shot put with a toss of 40-02 feet; Sprinter Tiffany Wilcox just missed qualifying for the finals in the 55-meter dash with a team-best time of 7.36 seconds; And the Belles placed four athletes among the top 17 in the long jump.
The women's indoor track team will get a week off of competition before returning to Lubbock for the Texas Tech Open on Feb. 5. Members of the women's track team will be honored at next Saturday's basketball games (Jan. 29) as the 2010 NCAA Division II Women's Outdoor National Championship banner is officially unfurled and members of the team are given championship rings.
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