Emory University junior Lauren Attiah captured the conference championship in the long jump on Saturday, keying a strong group of performance from the Eagles during the first day of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships at the University of Chicago.

The Emory men finished the first day in fourth-place with 20 points, trailing Washington University (58 points), the University of Chicago (29 points) and Carnegie Mellon University (24 points).  The Emory women sit in fifth place with 19 points after day one, trailing the University of Chicago (41.5 points), Washington University (36 points), Carnegie Mellon University (24 points) and Case Western Reserve University (20 points).

Attiah's distance of 5.49 meters in the long jump was not only good for her second-straight conference championship in the indoor event, but also an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.  The first-place finish scored 10 points for the Eagles.  Also scoring in the long jump for the Emory women was sophomore Theresa Ford, who finished fourth with a jump of 5.21 meters.

Also scoring on the first day for the Emory women was junior Tess Gallegos, who finished sixth in the 5,000-meter run to add a point to the Eagles' total.  Emory's women's distance medley relay team of sophomore Sabrina Jeppsson, junior Charlotte Diggs, freshman Emily Caesar, and junior Sara Gelb added four points with a fourth-place finish in a time of 12:37.94.

For the men, freshman Scott Greathouse earned all-UAA honors with a second-place finish in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.92 meters and scoring eight points.  Senior Brad Pruente added four points in the event for Emory, finishing fourth with a jump of 1.87 meters.

The Eagles added seven points in the long jump, as junior Ian Francis finished fourth (6.59 meters), freshman Mike Moserowitz finished fifth (6.54 meters) and senior Brad Pruente finished sixth (6.48 meters).  Chipping in with another point was Emory's men's distance relay team of junior Manvir Heir, freshman Nick Cortellessa, sophomore Ty Trumbo and senior Kevin Lanza, which finished sixth in a time of 10:29.33.

The majority of the day was spent on the preliminary heats of the running events, the finals of which will be contested on Sunday.  For the Emory men, senior Everett Bryant recorded the third-best time in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles, finishing the event with a provisional qualifying mark of 7.75 seconds.  Also qualifying for finals on Sunday were sophomore Isaac Chambers, who claimed third in the 400-meter dash (51.00 seconds), and senior Jason Campbell who finished third in the 800-meter run (1:57.04).

The Emory women recorded the top-three times in the preliminaries of the 200-meter dash, as freshman Gabrielle Clark finished first with a time of 26.20 seconds, senior Alycia Adams claimed second with a time of 26.42 seconds, and junior Alix Dyer finished third with a time of 26.66 seconds. 

The Eagles will also be sending the maximum three qualifiers to the finals in two other events on Sunday.  In the 400-meter dash preliminaries, sophomore Kaele Leonard won with a time of 59.42 seconds, and was followed by Dyer in fourth (1:00.65) and senior Alisha Reynolds in sixth (1:01.01).  In the 55-meter hurdle preliminaries, junior Jasmine McCullough finished second (8.61 seconds), freshman Morgan Monroe finished third (8.63 seconds) and junior Laura Lambie-Hanson finished fifth (8.82 seconds).  Emory added a pair of finals qualifiers in the 55-meter dash, as Clark claimed won her heat with a time of 7.45 seconds, and McCullough finished fourth with a mark of 7.44 seconds.

Action at the UAA Championships will resume tomorrow, with the field events starting at 10:00 AM, and the track events beginning at noon.