Posted on April 19, 2007
Other track teams may have more firepower than JMU, but Madison will have contenders in more than one event this weekend at the Colonial Athletic Association championships to be held at JMU.
Two JMU women’s track athletes will be defending their titles, as sophomore Leslie Anderson placed first in the 400 meters last year, and senior Adrienne Mayo placed first in the triple jump.
“Some of the meets have been rocky, but toward the end of the season my times are getting faster and I’m hoping that this weekend I PR in the 400,” Anderson said. “I have a title to defend.”
She will have plenty of competition, though, and is seeded first in the event by just four hundredths of a second at 55.70.
Mayo is seeded first in the triple jump with a mark of 12.32 meters. Her closest competitor is seeded at 12.20 meters.
Madison has experience in other CAA Championship events as well.
Sophomore LaVonne Ellerbe placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles at last year’s competition and is seeded fourth in this year’s event with a time of 1:03.74.
Sophomore Jessica Wade took fifth place in the shot put at last year’s meet and is seeded third in this year’s event at 13.80 meters.
Junior Marissa Biggins finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles at last year’s CAA championship track meet, but has struggled with a quadriceps injury this season. She hopes to put that behind her and capitalize on momentum from her second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles at the JMU Open Track and Field Meet.
“During the middle of the season I had a quadriceps injury, and I had a hard time hurtling because of it,” Biggins said. “This past weekend got my hopes back up for having a better season and going to the conference [championship] with a higher expectation.”
While JMU women’s track and field has many individual contenders, winning the competition as a team may be a tougher task.
“The thing I’m mostly worried about is we don’t have the numbers,” Anderson said. “They [larger CAA teams] put five or six people in one event, and I think it’s something we’re just going to have to deal with it.”
On the men’s side, depth is even more of an issue. However, individual performers are poised to shine in the program’s last CAA Championships.
“Teams that usually end up winning, they have guys that are competing for spots within their own team to compete in any given event,” junior Brian Buckland said. “They can just flood the distance events with their people, and are able to run guys in ways that we can’t.”
Buckland finished fourth in the 10,000 meters last year with a time of 31 minutes, 8.2 seconds and barely missed the IC4A qualifying mark of 31 minutes, eight seconds. His effort earned him fourth place in the event. He will attempt to meet the IC4A qualifying mark by running the 10,000-meter race Friday.
The IC4A Outdoor Track and Field Championship is an annual competition held at different colleges every year. There are over 100 teams affiliated with the IC4A and last year’s Outdoor Track and Field Champion was CAA rival George Mason.
Senior C.W. Moran qualified for the IC4As in the 10,000-meter at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 29 minutes, 16.62 seconds. He is seeded second in the 10,000-meter run at the CAA Championships, but will run the 5,000-meter run instead.
While the implementation of Title IX will eliminate men’s track at JMU, many of the older members have decided they will stay at Madison and continue to train at high levels.
“Most of the guys are staying here and most of the guys will continue to train,” Moran said. “I will continue to train 100 percent under Coach [Dave] Rinker and try to get in some big meets.”
Moran will do this by running unattached in races of his choice, with the ultimate goal of making the Olympic trials.
In field events, Doron White is seeded third at 44.99 meters in the hammer throw, and fifth in the shot put at 15.08 meters. Senior Dan Rylands is seeded fifth in the javelin throw.
The CAA Championships take place this Friday and Saturday at the JMU Track & Field Complex.
