Women’s track, coaching staff tops in Big East another year

Pitt women’s track stars Shanea and Shantea Calhoun aren’t merely twins by looks.

They run… Pitt women’s track stars Shanea and Shantea Calhoun aren’t merely twins by looks.

They run like each other as well.

The sisters, along with freshmen Janessa Murphy and Racquel Bender, ran their best 400-meter-relay time of the year to start the second day of competition at the Big East Outdoor Track Championships and propel the Panthers to their second consecutive Big East Outdoor title.

On top of that, the Panther coaching staff was named the Big East Coaching Staff of the Year for the second year in a row.

The Panthers won the 400-meter relay, the first event of the second day of competition, with a season-best 45.68 seconds. To keep the momentum going, Pitt’s Julianna Reed completed the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.05 to earn solid points for the Panthers. To boot, Reed earned All-Conference honors with a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles.

Then, the Calhoun sisters were at it again in the 100-meter sprint. Despite running an All-Big East time of 11.64 seconds, Shantea Calhoun finished .01 seconds behind the winner of the event, while Shanea finished fifth with a time of 11.74.

Next, the pair from New Haven, Conn., took first and second, Shanea winning with a time of 23.64 and Shantea right behind her at 23.69.

After a 10th-place finish in the 3200-meter relay, the Panthers needed a solid finish in the 1600-meter relay to win the competition and retain their title.

With the championship on the line, the relay team of Reed, the Calhoun sisters and sophomore Martina Hallman, whose fourth-place finish in the triple jump propelled Pitt over Villanova for the lead earlier, ran an NCAA Regional qualifying time of 3:40.46 to finish second in the event and first for the weekend.

But none of the second-day heroics would have been possible without an equally strong start on the first day of competition. With the way Pitt began the weekend, there was no doubt they would be in title contention.

Sophomore Angela Hoover eased all nerves, winning the first event of the first day while setting a school record in the javelin with 48.78 meters. The personal best and record throw just happened to come on Hoover’s first competition of the season.

After the astonishing start, senior Joelle Ambrose took ninth in the heptathlon, setting personal bests in the long jump and shot put at 5.17 and 10.31 meters, respectively.

Then, Hallman soared over the competition in the high jump, winning the event with a mark of 6.18 meters. The 2005 Eastern College Athletic Conference triple-jump champion won her first Big East title.

Pitt earned one more conference title on the day, and almost on cue, as senior Marissa Dudek brought it home. The Pottstown, Pa., native set a personal-best mark in the pole vault with a vault of 4.00 meters to win her sixth Big East title in the event.

Pitt retained its second-place spot at the end of the day with redshirt senior Maureen McCandless’ third-place finish in the 10,000-meter event. Running a time of 34:56.63, McCandless nearly broke the school record in her first time running the event. She did take home All-Conference honors as a consolation.

After both days of competition, the women won six total events and broke two school records en route to a 10.5-point victory over second place Notre Dame, 117-106.5. The victory marks Pitt’s second Big East Outdoor Championship in the last two years.

And for the second season in a row, the Pitt coaching staff, led by head coach Alonzo Webb and assistants Curtis Philips, Michaela Tripon, Jim Trautmann, Amanda Walker and Sam Bair were honored as the Big East Coaching Staff of the Year.

The Panthers roll onto the ECAC Championship events this weekend in Princeton, N.J., before beginning the NCAA East Regionals May 26.