ECU Track Competes At Three Separate Outdoor Venues
April 11, 2005 | Men's Track and Field
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The East Carolina men's and women's outdoor track and field teams turned in notable efforts at three separate venues over the weekend, as the Pirates and Lady Pirates competed at the Duke Invitational and Murray Neely Invitational in Greensboro. In addition, several members of the ECU's women's squad also participated in the prestigious Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
In Durham, thrower Eric Frasur, turned in another stellar performance with a first-place finish in the hammer throw with a NCAA Region qualifying effort of 56.68 meters while establishing an ECU record in the discus throw with a toss of 49.42 to earn a fourth-place standing. Terrance Myers and Mayso Porsch added sixth- and 11th-place finishes in the hammer throw with clips of 53.55 and 48.39, respectively.
In the women's competition, Chelsea Salisbury topped the Lady Pirates in the field events with a 17th-place standing in the hammer throw (46.05) while standing 20th in the javelin toss (33.96). In the pole vault, Brie Berkowitz and Amy Hart tied for 20th with a performance of 3.20. Hart also earned a 16th-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.87.
At the Texas Relays, East Carolina's 4x400 relay squad, composed of Portia Baker, Simone Baptist, Tara DeBrielle and Terri Davenport, set a new school record with a time of 3:42.03, narrowly missing an NCAA qualification slot by just three-tenths of a second while finishing 14th in the preliminary standings.
Individually, Johanna Allen turned in a 10th-place overall finish in the 5,000-meter run with a personal-best time of 17:42.69 while Aisha Bilal-Mack was 40th (1:05.05) in the 400-meter hurdles preliminary event.
ECU enjoyed more success at the Murray Neely Invitational, racking up two first-place finishes and 13 top five standings. Hayley Flynn won the women's 1,500-meter run in a career-best time of 5:02.10 and Kyle MacKenzie captured the 1,500-meter men's version with a personal-best time of 4:01.21 to headline efforts which also included a pair of NCAA Region qualifying performances.
B.J. Henderson finished second to former Pirate standout and current Nike professional LaShawn Merritt in the 200-meter dash with career-best time of 20.84 to earn qualification while Hector Cotto easily surpassed the NCAA minimum in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.12 and a fourth-place finish.
Other top performances include Nicole Callaham (100-meter hurdles/4th/14.44; 400-meter hurdles/2nd/1:05.37), Martha Bright (high jump/4th/1.55), Andrew Barber (400 meters/5th/48.83), Kyle Yunaska (800 meters/4th/1:57.24), Jason Diehl (800 meters/5th/1:58.69) and Cotto (400-meter hurdles/3rd/54.01).
Both teams will again utilize split squads next weekend with participation at the Sea-Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., and the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill.
