Led by a talented group of sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers during the 2012 season, the Emory University women’s outdoor track and field team recorded an 18^th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, and claimed its third-straight University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship and seventh outdoor conference title overall.

The Eagles scored at the NCAA Championships with all-America finishes by both its 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams.  The 1,600-meter relay team, consisting of freshman Debora Adjibaba, senior Lauren Attiah, junior Kaele Leonard and senior Alix Dyer finished third at the meet in a school-record time of 3:46.35 seconds, scoring six points for the Eagles.  The 400-meter relay team of senior Jasmine McCullough, Dyer, Attiah and Adjibaba added five more points with a fourth-place finish in another school-record time of 46.87 seconds. 

Dyer, Attiah and Adjibaba joined former Eagles Regina Robinson (1994) and Kahlilah Jennings (1997) as the only Emory women to earn multiple all-America honors in a single outdoor season.  In addition, Dyer’s three outdoor all-America honors over her career are more than any other women’s athlete in the history of the Emory track and field program.

Emory athletes qualified to participate in a number of other events at the NCAA Championships.  Attiah added a 13^th-place finish in the triple jump and a 19^th-place finish in the long jump.  In the hurdle events, sophomore Morgan Monroe placed 15^th in the 100-meter hurdles, while in the 400-meter hurdles, senior Charlotte Diggs recorded a 14^th-place finish.  Emory also had two competitors in the 400-meter dash, with Dyer finishing in 13^th place and Leonard taking 21^st place.  The Eagles’ 18^th-place team finish at the meet was second only in the program’s history to the squad’s ninth-place finish at the outdoor nationals in 2002.

Emory claimed the 2012 UAA Outdoor Championship after scoring 226.5 points during the meet, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, to best second-place Washington University (201.5 points) and third-place Case Western Reserve University (157 points).  The Eagles were paced by Adjibaba, who became just the second athlete in UAA Outdoor Track and Field history to be named both the UAA Most Outstanding Performer and the Rookie of the Year, joining Carnegie Mellon’s Jacqueline Guevel, who claimed both honors in 2011.  Individually, Adjibaba won the 100-meter dash in a UAA-record time of 12.17 seconds and the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.44 seconds, in addition to claiming conference championships as part of the 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay teams, each in conference record marks as well.  She became the seventh UAA Most Outstanding Performer in the program’s history, and the second Emory athlete to be named the Rookie of the Year.

McCullough, Dyer and Attiah each joined Adjibaba on the UAA Champion and conference-record setting 400-meter relay team, while Attiah, Leonard and Dyer were also on the conference-winning and UAA-record 1,600-meter relay team.  Other UAA Championships were won by Attiah in the triple jump and Dyer in the 400-meter dash.  Adding all-UAA honors were McCullough in the 100-meter dash, Dyer in the 200-meter dash, Leonard in the 400-meter dash, and Ford in the long jump and discus throw, each with second-place finishes, while Leonard in the 200-meter dash, freshman Stephanie Crane in the 1,500-meter run, Monroe in the 100-meter hurdles, Diggs in the 400-meter hurdles, Attiah in the long jump, Ford in the high jump, and freshman Miriam Cash in the pole vault each finished third.  Emory also received a third-place all-UAA finish from its 3,200-meter relay team of freshman Marissa Gogniat, junior Calley Edwards, senior Sabrina Jeppsson, and sophomore Emily Caesar.

The Emory women totaled an impressive six conference championships and 20 all-UAA honors during the two-day meet.

Dyer was able to set a pair of individual Emory records during the year, recording times of 25.03 seconds in the 200-meter dash at the Gregory Invitational, and 56.34 seconds in the 400-meter dash at the Georgia Tech Invitational.  Earlier in the season, Crane broke the program-best mark in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:40.70 at the Duke Invitational.  In the 5,000-meter run, senior Tess Gallegos broke former Eagle Angela Davies’ record (set in 2002) with a time of 17:15.66 at the Dr. Keeler Invitational, while Attiah surpassed her own program mark with a leap of 12.03 meters in the triple jump at the Auburn Tiger Track Classic.  In the 3,200-meter relay, Edwards, Gogniat, Crane and Caesar broke the school-record in the event (set in 2011) with a time of 9:19.25 at the Emory Classic.

Emory’s coaching staff received recognition for their squad’s success during the 2012 outdoor campaign.  Head coach John Curtin was named the South/ Southeast Region Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA, while assistant Madeleine Outman earned South/Southeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year honors.  The two, in addition to assistants Mark Johnson, Carl Leivers and Pedro Vasquez, were named the UAA Coaching Staff of the Year as well.

During the regular season, the Eagles recorded first-place finishes at both the Emory Invitational (March 23^rd-24^th) and the Emory Classic (March 30^th-31^st), and a fourth-place finish with a limited squad at the Sewanee Invitational (April 21^st).

A number of Emory athletes were recognized for the contributions in the classroom, in addition to their athletic accomplishments.  Diggs, Ford and Gallegos were each named to the Capital One/ CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team in 2012.

The Eagles earned the following honors during the 2012 season: 

The following were the top marks by Emory athletes during the 2012 season: 

*E – Emory Record
*U – UAA Meet Record
+ - Also set UAA Meet Record in event during the season