Panthers turn in first place performance

It seems as though the Pitt track team is not fazed by major championship meets. In fact,… It seems as though the Pitt track team is not fazed by major championship meets. In fact, they seem to improve as the meets get bigger.

Coming off an impressive, third-place performance at the Big East Championships earlier in the month, the Pitt women won the Eastern College Athletic Championship last weekend, in Princeton, N.J., by an overwhelming margin of 114-68 over second-place Georgetown.

The Panthers had four individual champions and won two relay events.

Trenace Elliott finished first in the 400 meters with a time of 54.10 seconds. She was also on both of the winning relay teams ? the 4 X 100 team and the 4 X 400 team.

Rounding out the rest of the 4 X 100 team were Kimberly Lyles, Lamoy Stephens and Nicole Vann, while the 4 X 400 team included Lyles, Stephens and Elizabeth Bayne.

Bayne was also the winner of the 400-meter hurdles event, finishing with a time of 57.95 seconds.

The other Pitt champions were Amanda Walker, who took home the shot put title with a throw of 15.04 meters, and Melanie Carter, who won the triple jump with a distance of 12.96 meters.

While the Panther men did not achieve their goal of finishing in the top 10, their 21st place performance was a 17-place improvement over last year’s 38th place finish. The team accumulated 18.5 points.

Matt Brousse finished third in the pole vault, clearing a height of 4.90 meters. Brousse was Pitt’s top finisher, among the men, in the meet. Shawndel Daniel also had a solid meet, taking fifth place in the long jump with a mark of 7.21 meters.

Despite the fact that this year’s squad has a new coaching staff, led by head coach Alonzo Webb, and does not have a home track, the Panthers have come a long way in a short amount of time.

Webb said his team’s progress has “surprised a lot of people” in the Big East who have watched Pitt take big strides in just a “matter of months.”

The NCAA Regional Championships start May 29 in Fairfax, Va., and Pitt will send 11 men and 12 women to the meet. Should any Panthers qualify, they will travel to Sacramento, Calif., for the NCAA Championships on June 10.