Cardinal Men Finish Second, Women Sixth at BIG EAST Indoor
Championships
Cards finish meet with eight conference champions, 17 medalists
AKRON, Ohio * The ninth-ranked University of Louisville
men*s track and field team earned three individual event titles and
six medalists on the final day of competition to finish second overall
at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships, while the Cardinal women added one
event champion and three medalists to finish sixth overall after the
final day of action at the University of Akron*s Athletics Field
House.
The UofL men scored 131 points overall, while Notre Dame edged
the Cards with 133.5 points. It was a two-team race for the title as
Connecticut was a distant third with 105 points, followed by Georgetown
in fourth with 82 points and Rutgers in fifth with 71.5 points. The
second place finish matches the program*s best ever conference finish,
also accomplished at the 2006 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships.
The Louisville women finished sixth overall with 70.10 points,
while Georgetown won the women*s title with 112 points overall. Notre
Dame was second in the women*s event with 101.6 points, followed by
Connecticut in third (77.6 points) and Pittsburgh and Villanova tied for
fourth (76 points).
Winning event titles on Sunday for the Cardinal men were
sophomore Andre Black in the triple jump, sophomore Steven Hnat in the
shot put and sophomore Tone Belt in the high jump. Freshman Elisabeth
Slettum led the way for the Cardinal women with the win in the 200m.
Black, from Mobile, Ala., won the triple jump with a school
record and NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 52 feet, 5.5 inches, the
third best mark in the nation in 2007. Hnat, from Floyds Knob, Ind., won
the shot put with a school record throw of 56-09.50, while Belt, from
Berkeley Springs, W.Va., won the men*s high jump with a cleared height
of 7 feet, 3 inches, matching his own school record set earlier this
season and a new BIG EAST championships event record.
Belt was also named Most Outstanding Men*s Field Performer of
the Meet after scoring 26 points for the Cardinal men with wins in the
long jump and high jump and a third-place finish in the triple jump.
It*s his second such award for the two-time NCAA All-American after
winning the same honor at the 2006 BIG EAST Outdoor championships.
On the women*s side, Slettum, from Stavanger, Norway, won the
200m with a school record time of 23.93 seconds breaking her previous
school record of 24.05 set during yesterday*s preliminary round.
Overall, the Cardinal men and women combined to earn eight
individual conference titles, twice as many as last year*s total and
17 total medalists, up from 11 at last year*s BIG EAST Indoor
Championships. The Cardinal men improved two positions on last year*s
fourth-place finish at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships, while the
women also moved up two positions after an eighth-place finish in 2006.
More information from today*s action will be available later
this evening here at UofLSports.com. Up next, UofL is expected to have
several athletes traveling to Boston, Mass., on Feb. 24-25 for the USA
Indoor Championships, a non-collegiate meet which annually features many
of the nation*s top professional and collegiate track and field
athletes.
