May 12, 2017
Day One Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
HOUSTON (SMU) – Freshman
Hannah Miller led the Mustangs on day one of the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships Friday with a third-place finish in the 10,000-meters in a time of 34 minutes, 47.28 seconds.
Miller picked up six points for the Mustangs in her first ever 10K and her time broke the 12-year stadium record of 36:15.15 set by DePaul's Marlene Key. She now holds the fourth-fastest time in school history after finishing behind Connecticut's Emily Durgin, who set a meet record (34:28.06) to win the event and Central Florida's Anne-Marie Blaney (34:31.42) who was the runner-up. Junior
Marlene Gomez-Islinger also got in on the action competing in her first ever 10K and grabbed two points with a time of 36:10.57 to place seventh, which is the 10th fastest time in the program.
SMU's sprint group excelled on the track with three Mustangs advancing to the finals Sunday. Freshman
Chelsea Francis placed second in her heat of the 200-meter dash with the second-fastest time and personal record of 23.56 seconds (+3.8 mps). Sophomore
Latessa Johnson, who placed second in the 200m final at last year's outdoor championships, won the first heat in 23.73 despite running into a -0.8 headwind. Freshman
India Simmons finished second in the first heat of the 400-meter hurdles (1:01.58), which was the seventh-fastest time.
In the 800 meters prelims, senior
Holly Archer advanced to Sunday's final after finishing second in the first heat with a time of 2 minutes, 9.80 seconds, which was the fourth-fastest time.
After day one, four Mustangs advanced to the finals in three events with two days of competition remaining.
"We set ourselves up well. The team knew what they had to do on day one and they took care of business," head coach
Cathy Casey said. "Looking forward to tomorrow."
Junior
Anna Novosadova won two events on the first day of the heptathlon and sits in fourth place with a score of 2,780 points. In the first race on the track, Novosadova crossed the finish line first in the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 14.74 seconds to earn 876 points. She also was victorious in the 200-meters with a time of 25.85 to secure 810 points.
She finished seventh in the high jump with a mark of 4 feet, 11.75 inches (1.52m) to earn 644 points and seventh in the shot put with a personal record toss of 28-09.75 (8.78m) for 450 points.
Cincinnati's Angelica Lightfoot leads the competition with 2,960 points, followed by East Carolina's Aminah Ghaffar with 2,903 and the Bearcats' Naomi Urbano with 2,869.
The heptathlon concludes Saturday on day two of The American Outdoor Championships, which is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. CT. Saturday's events start at 1 p.m. CT with the start of the decathlon, while the running events get started at 5:30 p.m. CT with the women's 100-meter hurdles.
All championship information and results can be found at
www.TheAmerican.org/OTF. Live coverage of the event can be viewed on any computer, tablet or mobile device via The American Digital Network (TheAmerican.org/DN).
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Mustangs by following SMU Track & Field Team on Twitter at @SMUTrackFieldXC, on Facebook at Facebook.com/SMUTrackFieldXC, and on Instagram at Instagram.com/SMUTrackandXC. Twitter at @SMUMustangs or Instagram at SMU.Mustangs.
WOMEN'S TEAMS SCORES (after Day 1)
1. UCF - 19
2. Connecticut - 14
3. Houston - 11
4. Cincinnati - 10
5. SMU - 8
6. Memphis - 5
Tulane - 5
8. Tulsa - 3
9. South Florida - 2
10. East Carolina - 1
