The Emory University men's and women's track and field teams opened competition at the 2012 University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in Pittsburgh, PA with a strong first day, including a conference championship in the long jump for senior Ian Francis.

Francis won the men's long jump with a leap of 7.10 meters, scoring 10 points for the Eagles in the event, and claiming the lone individual UAA title of the first day for the Eagles.  He was followed in the event by Pat Lanter (fifth place, 6.34 meters) and Xavier Fowler (seventh place, 6.05 meters), who both scored in the event as well.  Other scores on the first day for the Emory men included Geraint Davies in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (fifth place, 9:35.51) and the Eagles' 4x800-meter relay team of Eric Lawson, William Matheson, Kevin Delaney and Patrick Crews (fifth place, 8:37.13).

Earned all-UAA honors on the first day for the Emory women were Theresa Ford (second place, 5.43 meters) and Lauren Attiah (third-place, 5.42 meters) in the long jump, Miriam Cash (third-place, 3.01 meters) in the pole vault, and the Eagles' 4x800-meter relay team of Marissa Gogniat, Calley Edwards, Sabrina Jeppsson and Emily Caesar (third place, 9:41.95).  Other scorers for the Emory women during day one included Hannah Smith (sixth place, 11:43.35) and Meredith Lorch (eighth-place, 12:00.88) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Emily Mitchell (fourth-place, 5.42 meters) in the long jump.

The Emory women sit in fourth place after the first day of competition with 34.50 points, trailing first-place Washington University (83.50 points), second-place Case Western Reserve University (70 points) and third-place University of Chicago (39 points).  The Emory men are in fifth-place with 24 points, trailing Carnegie Mellon University (72.50 points), Washington (62.50 points), Case (54 points), and Chicago (39 points).

However, both teams are poised to make a run on the final day of competition.  Emory's Debora Adjibaba, Hadiza Sa-Aadu, Morgan Monroe and Jasmine McCullough had the top-four finishes in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash, while Adjibaba, Alix Dyer, Attiah and Kaele Leonard claimed the top-four spots in the 200-meter dash preliminaries.  In the 400-meter dash preliminaries, Leonard finished first, followed by Dyer in second, Electra Korn in sixth and Charlotte Diggs in eighth to qualify for the final, while in the 400-meter hurdles prelims, Laura Lambie-Hanson finished second, followed by Diggs in fourth, Ijeoma Okafor in fifth and Becca Berge in eighth to make the finals.  Emory also had three women qualify for the finals in the 100-meter hurdles, as Monroe finished first in the prelims, followed by McCullough in fourth, Laura Lambie-Hanson in sixth, and in the 800-meter run, Stephanie Crane qualified for the finals with a fourth-place finish in the preliminaries, as did Jeppsson with a seventh-place finish.

Finals qualifiers from day one for the men included Francis in the 100-meter dash (sixth-place), and Gui Silva in the 200-meter dash (seventh-place).  Emory had four qualifiers  - Silva, Isaac Chambers, Courtlandt Perkins and Nick Cortellessa – for the finals of the 400-meter dash, while Stephen Ellwood and Patrick Crews advanced to the finals of the 800-meter dash, and Ankush Mohile qualified for the finals of the 110-meter hurdles.

Action at the UAA Championships will resume Sunday morning, with the second and final day of competition.