Emory University senior Natalie Fenn claimed the first conference title of the meet for the Eagles, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase to help put the women in striking distance of first place at the 2011 University Athletic Association (UAA) Outdoor Track & Field Championships.  The men ended the first day in sixth place.

The Emory women scored 45 points during the first day of competition to end the day in third place, trailing first-place Washington University (Mo.) (90 points) and second-place Chicago (51 points).  However, the women also qualified 14 athletes for event finals on Saturday.

For the Emory women, four individuals and one relay earned all-UAA honors, headlined by Fenn’s first-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a provisional qualifying time of 11:08.57.  Sara Gelb also claimed all-UAA honors in the event, finishing second with a time of 11:16.76.

Emory’s women’s 4x800-meter relay team of Emily Caesar, Sabrina Jeppsson, Tess Gallegos and Melanie Frank broke an 18-year old school record in the event, running a time of 9:23.29, good for a second place finish and all-UAA honors.

Also earning all-UAA honors on the first day were Lauren Attiah and Theresa Ford, who finished second and third, respectively, in the long jump.  Sarah Klass contributed with a scoring performance in the 10,000-meter run, finishing sixth overall, while Rasheika Martin finished eighth in the shot put, and Sarah Pitman eighth in the hammer throw, to each score a point.

The Emory women also put themselves in a strong position to score well tomorrow, qualifying a number of runners for the finals during Friday’s preliminaries.  Juniors Alix Dyer and Jasmine McCullough each recorded times of 12.36 seconds in the 100-meter dash, just .03 seconds off a provisional qualifying time, to finish in the top two spots of the preliminaries, while Alycia Adams finished sixth in the event to also qualify for tomorrow’s finals. 

The Eagles qualified three in the 100-meter hurdle preliminaries, as McCullough and Morgan Monroe claimed second and third, each with a provisional qualifying time of 14.88 seconds.  Laura Lambie-Hanson also qualified for the finals with a seventh-place finish.

The Eagles also took the top-three spots in the 200-meter dash preliminaries, with Dyer claiming first, Attiah, Alycia Adams second and Attiah third, while McCullough also qualified with a sixth-place finish.  Emory qualified a pair of women for the 400-meter dash finals with Kaele Leonard claiming fourth in the preliminaries and Alicia Reynolds sixth.  Rounding out the preliminaries, Charlotte Diggs and Lambie-Hanson each qualified for the finals of the 400-meter hurdles, finishing fourth and sixth, respectively.

The men totaled 23 points scored during the first day, as Washington claimed the top spot after one day with 82 points, and Chicago finished the day in second with 55 points.

On the men’s side, the 4x800-meter relay team of Cameron Edwards, Kevin Lanza, Aaron Gregg and Jason Campbell set a school record with a time of 7:46.94, earning all-UAA honors in the process with a third-place finish.  The Eagles also scored well in the long jump on the first day, with Ian Francis (second, 6.86 meters) and Mike Moserowitz (third, 6.76 meters) each earning all-UAA honors, and Pat Lanter (seventh, 6.52 meters) and Brad Pruente (eighth, 6.50 meters) each scoring in the event.

Campbell finished first in the preliminaries of the 800-meter run with a time of 1:54.90, while Edwards also advanced to the finals with an eighth-place finish.  Other Emory men earning spots in Saturday’s finals included Courtlandt Perkins in the 200-meter dash (seventh, 22.70 seconds), Isaac Chambers in the 400-meter dash (third, 50.04 seconds), and Everett Bryant in the 110-meter hurdles (third, 14.81 seconds).

Action at the UAA Championships will resume tomorrow morning, with field events starting at 10:00 AM, and running events at 11:30 AM.