Feb. 16, 2007

HOUSTON - The Lamar University men's and women's track and field teams wrapped up day one of the Southland Conference Indoor Championship at the Yeoman Field House at the University of Houston.

The Lady Cardinals finished the evening strong with first place finishes in the 5,000 meter run and the distance medley relay. The Cardinal men also had a nice finish to the day, posting a third place finish in the 5,000 and winning the DMR.

Renee Graham started the impressive finish for LU by winning the women's 5,000 in a time of 17:08.92. Her time was two seconds off of her personal best of 17:06.12, set in 2006, and was her best of the 2007 season. Stacey Monteau also had a solid run for Lamar, placing sixth in a time of 18:07.31.

Frank Bwambale posted a third place finish in the 5,000 meter run, posting a time of 14:43.90. It was the first 5,000 Bwambale had run the all season.

The women's DMR, ran by Amanda King , Alexandra Mayfield, Andrea Smith and Clerc Koenck blistered the field to capture their straight title in the event, running a 12:03.03. Lamar won the two previous DMR championships in times of 12:02.15 last season and 12:01.57 in 2005.

The men's DMR, consisting of Danny Shaw, Andy Haeggquist, Aaron Brannen and Francis Kasagule narrowly edged Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the title. Kasagule appeared to have the race in hand with a large lead over the field, but tripped and fell just as the last lap gun sounded. After quickly getting back to his feet, Kasagule held off a hard charging Shadrack Songok of TAMU-CC for the win in a time of 10:07.43, while Corpus came in at 10:07.87.

The DMR win by the men was the first SLC DMR championship for Lamar since the 1985 when they ran a 10:17.12.

In the sprints Michael Gauthier qualified for the finals in the men's 60-meter dash with a time of 6.89

In the women's 60-meter hurdles the Lady Cardinals had two runners qualify for the finals. Jessika Johnson posted a season-best time of 8.83 seconds, the fourth fastest qualifying time, while Adrianne Johnson ran a 9.09 for the eighth spot in the finals.

Brittany Pollard was the lone Lady Cardinal to qualify for the finals in the women's 400 meter dash, running a 58.15, the sixth fastest qualifying time. The time was also a season-best for Pollard, whose previous best was 58.39.

The Lamar men sent three runners into Saturday's mile final, as Francis Kasagule led the field with a time of 4:19.78 earning the top qualifying spot. Ewan Simpson and Danny Shaw also made their way to the finals, posting times of 4:21.31 and 4:23.52 respectively.

The Lady Cardinals also qualified three runners for the mile, as defending SLC champion Amanda King led the way for LU with a time of 5:15.81. Clerc Koenck also had a strong performance making the finals with a time of 5:19.28, while Rachel Kingsford posted a 5:23.33 to earn her way to Saturday's final.

Rounding out the qualifiers for Lamar was Andrea Smith who had a solid showing in the women's 800 meter run, posting the second fastest qualifying in the meet time with a 2:18.51.

The Cardinal men finished the day in seventh place with 16 points, while the women sit in sixth place with 23 points heading into Saturday's finals.

The meet gets back underway Saturday at 1:15 p.m. with the final of the women's mile. The final event of the day, the men's 1,600 meter relay is scheduled to begin at 4:35 p.m.