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Four School Records, Numerous PRs Set on Day One of Conference USA Championships

Feb. 29, 2008

C-USA Championship Day 1 Results in PDF Format

HOUSTON (www.ucfathletics.com) - UCF track and field athletes set school records in the 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles, the 800-meter run and the distance medley relay on Friday to highlight a successful first day of the Conference USA Indoor Championships hosted by the University of Houston at Yeoman Field House.

The final day of the Conference USA Championships commences at 10 a.m. EST in Yeoman Field House. Live results will be available at www.uhcougars.com and www.conferenceusa.cstv.com.

Sophomore sprinter Feyisara Adaramola (Bronx, N.Y.) broke her week-old school record in the 60-meter dash, finishing in a time of 7.56. Junior sprinter Dione Thomas (Jacksonville, Fla.) broke her personal-best time in the event with a 7.58, which made her just the second athlete in school history (Adaramola being the other) to have eclipsed the 7.60 mark in the 60-meter dash.

Junior Shantile Blackburn (Brooklyn, N.Y.) broke her own school record in the finals of the 800-meter run with a time of 2:12.38. The school's distance medley relay squad, consisting of Kelly McNeill (Coral Springs, Fla.), Samantha Shields (Orlando, Fla.), Blackburn and Kristen Zieminski (Sarasota, Fla.), also set a new school record with 12:06.01.

Senior Victoria Chin (Orlando, Fla.) failed to advance to the finals of the 400-meter dash, but returned 40 minutes later to record a school-record time of 8.59 in the 60-meter hurdles.

"We had a pretty good overall performance today," UCF head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert said. "We had a lot of PRs today. It hurts when you set PRs and can't score points, so it's kind of bittersweet, but we always tell our athletes to give 100 percent effort and do their very best and you can't ask for more than that. Tomorrow we definitely have a great opportunity to score points in a number of areas."

Freshman sprinter Lizzie Harris (Miami, Fla.) finished sixth in the preliminaries of the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.92.

Senior thrower Virginia Traynor (Miami, Fla.) was seventh in the hammer throw with a personal-record toss of 53-5. Thomas finished third in the long jump after an 11th-place finish in the conference championships last season. She recorded a leap of 19-9.

A pair of Knights, Ocean Cohen (Sarasota, Fla.) and Allison Palmer (Oviedo, Fla.) each recorded PRs in the 5,000-meter run. Cohen finished in 18:36.96 and Palmer was finished in 18:19.16.

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