March 24, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - Junior UCF middle distance runner Shantile Blackburn (Brooklyn, N.Y.) has been named the Knights' Athlete of the Week, as decided by the team's coaching staff on Monday.
Blackburn broke the school's 800-meter run record on Saturday at the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla. Blackburn, who set UCF's school record in the indoor 800-meter run earlier this season with a time of 2:12.38 at the Conference USA Indoor Championships on March 1, broke Valerie Beaubrun's six-year-old school record in the outdoor 800 meter by finishing in a time of 2:10.73 on Saturday.
Blackburn's school record in the 800-meter run marked the 14th school record set this season by the Knights under the direction of first-year head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert and the first school record to fall during the 2008 outdoor campaign.
Following each week of competition, Smith Gilbert and her staff will nominate an athlete to be the school's track and field athlete of the week based on the previous weekend's meet. That athlete will then be eligible to be considered for the Conference USA Athlete of the Week, announced each Tuesday afternoon by the C-USA office.
Team Notebook: The UCF track and field team opened its 2008 outdoor season at the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla ... Junior mid-distance runner Shantile Blackburn broke the school record in the 800-meter run, finishing in a time of 2:10.73 ... UCF's 5,000-meter runners Shannon Kelly and Allison Palmer each set personal-best times in their event on Friday night ... The team used the meet primarily as a practice to get accustomed to the outdoor season and events that its athletes were participating in for the first time this season ... The Knights return to action April 4-5 when they travel to Gainesville, Fla., to participate in the Pepsi Florida Relays hosted by the University of Florida at the James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track.
Recent Results
Competition: Hurricane Invitational
Dates: Friday-Saturday March 21-22
City: Coral Gables, Fla. (Cobb Track and Field Facility)
Placing of Teams/Score: No Team Score
Upcoming Events
Competition: Pepsi Florida Relays
Dates: Friday-Saturday April 4-5
City: Gainesville, Fla. (James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track)
Live Stats: www.gatorzone.com
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