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Issued: January 28, 2006

SECOND TOP PLACE MEET IN A ROW FOR WOMEN'S TRACK

WHITEWATER - The UW-Eau Claire women's track team got off to a magnificent start last weekend when it took first out of five teams at the home Blugold Open. Today it maintained pace by taking first out of 14 teams at the UW-Whitewater Invite.

The Blugolds scored 139 points on the day. Second place Winona State had 108 while UW-Stevens Point took third with 94. Carthage College and its 84 total ended up in fourth and UW-Platteville rounded out the top five with 72.

There were two Blugold champions today. Chelsea Becker (Jr.-Rice Lake) soared in a 3.43-meter pole vault and she held the tie-breaker over two others who also had 3.43-meter marks to take the top spot. One of those two was Eau Claire's Stephanie Barnes (Jr.-Sauk City/Sauk Prairie). Erin Kokta (Sr.-Brookfield/East) had a long jump of 5.41 meters to win the event. The next closest was 5.25 meters of Winona State's Gretchen Harty.

The top five saw many Blugolds today. Eau Claire dominated the 800-meter run. Sarah Stirdivant (Fr.-Doylestown, PA/Central Bucks W.), Liz Kooistra (Fr.-Lakeville, MN), and Christina Locke (Jr.-Racine/Horlick) all placed in the top five. They had times of 2:21.14, 2:21.39 and 2:23.95, respectively. Jane-Marie Ovanin (Sr.-Amherst) took second in the 3000-meter run on a 10:58.17 performance while Bridget Bocher (Jr.-Watertown) took fourth in 11:10.01. Molly Warner (So.-Mosinee) had an 18:11.41 5000-meter run to take third.

There were other notable performances as well. Liz Faller (Jr.-Marinette) took second in the 55-meter hurdles while Becker took fourth in the same event. Faller ran it in 8.66 while Becker did it in 9.39. Kelly Sprague (Jr.-Mankato, MN/East) and her 7.61 55-meter dash netted fifth. Kokta and Becker took third and fourth in the triple jump on marks of 11.01 meters and 10.69 meters. Finally, Paula Crossfield (Jr.-Madison/East) finished fifth in the weight throw with a 13.26-meter effort.

The 4x200-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay prizes were taken in by Eau Claire. The team had a 1:46.04 in the former and a 4:02.21 in the latter.

The team looks to continue its early season success when it heads to the UW-Stout Invite next Saturday. It will start at noon.

UW-Whitewater Results

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