Carter helps Panthers to fourth-place finish

Melanie Carter is one hop, skip and a jump away from becoming an NCAA champion.

Carter, who… Melanie Carter is one hop, skip and a jump away from becoming an NCAA champion.

Carter, who took first place in the Big East Conference just more than two weeks ago, added the Eastern College Athletic Conference triple jump title to her resume with her 12.86-meter leap in the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston March 6.

Currently ranked fifth in the nation, Carter is the lone Panther in the Indoor NCAA Championships this week in Arkansas.

But Carter was not the only Panther to turn heads in Boston. The women’s team placed fourth out of the 48 competing teams in the ECAC Championships with a total of 41 points.

Kimberly Lyles dashed to a second place finish in the 200-meter race in a time of 24.46 seconds. Sophomore Amanda Walker nabbed third place in the shot put with a heave of 15.16 meters, while also earning sixth place in the weight throw with a personal best mark of 17.32 meters.

The 4-by-400 meter relay team of Trenace Elliot, Erica Johnson, Lyles and Elizabeth Bayne sprinted to a third place finish in a time of three minutes, 42.67 seconds.

Bayne also grabbed seventh place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.09, while Elliot turned in a 56-second performance in the 400 meters that earned her an eighth place finish.

In the 60-meter hurdles, Pitt had two representatives in the event. Nicole Vann leaned to a sixth-place finish just two hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Tamara McGill, who finished seventh with a time of 8.64 seconds.

McGill also leapt to a ninth-place finish in the high jump clearing the 1.70-meter bar.

For the men’s team, points were harder to come by.

As a team, the Panthers earned only eight points, which placed them 32nd out of 48 teams.

Pole vaulter Matt Brousse earned five of the eight points with his vault of 4.95 meters. Brousse, whose vault was a personal best, finished fourth.

The 4-by-400 meter relay team of Troy Roberson, Deon Bascom, Chris Anderson and Jeryl Wilborn raced to a 10th place finish in the preliminaries, only to bounce back in the finals with a sixth place finish with a personal best time of 3:12.07.

Wilborn who made the finals in the 800 meters, finished in ninth place in a time of 1:53.37.

With the exception of Carter, the indoor season for the Panthers has come to a close. Pitt heads outdoors for its first meet of the outdoor season when the Panthers travel to Charlotte, N.C., for the 49ers’ Classic Invitational March 21.