FULL RESULTS
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ…Sophomore transfer
MERCEDES HICKS (Millville, NJ/Atlantic City) crushed the school record in the shot put in her first meet at
New Jersey City University and senior All-American
EBONY BARNES (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) easily placed first in two 60-meter dash races as the Gothic Knight women's indoor track and field team opened its 2008-09 season on December 7 at the Seton Hall Open at the Richie and Sheila Regan Fieldhouse. There was no team scoring.
Hicks, a former First-Team All-State performer in the shot put, won the shot put by a staggering 14 feet, 8 ½ inches over the rest of the field with an NCAA provisional qualifying distance of 13.12 meters (43-00.50). The NCAA mark was 12.90. Hicks crushed a nearly 10-year-old NJCU record in the event by more than two feet. That record of 12.48 meters was established by Keisha Owen on February 27, 1999. Hicks also set a new meet record, topping the distance of 12.84 meters by Montclair State University's Monique Riddick, on March 2, 2008. Riddick eventually won the Division III national title last year.
Barnes placed first of 18 sprinters in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash in 8.02 seconds then cruised to victory by 34/100th of a second, beating several Division I competitors in the race, including Seton Hall's Donna Alexander, as she timed an ECAC Division III qualifying time of 7.83 seconds. Barnes, who was just 4/100th of a second shy of breaking the meet record of 7.79 seconds, narrowly missed the NCAA provisional standard of 7.82 seconds.
Barnes was also one of four NJCU athletes in the 500-meter dash, and had the best time of any Division III competitor, placing 11
th of 24 in 1:23.05. Freshman
VERONICA SWEET (Eatontown, NJ/Monmouth Regional) timed 1:30.10, junior
BRANDI SEWELL (Camden, NJ/Camden) ran 1:30.27 and sophomore
TASHEDAH GREEN (Pleasantville, NJ/Pleasantville) finished in 1:30.58, as the trio placed 19
th, 20
th and 21
st, respectively.
Green was fifth in the 1000-meter run in 3:41.45. Freshman
DANIELLE COLON (Pleasantville, NJ/Pleasantville) was fifth in the 3000-meters in 11:45.00. Freshman
MELLISA GOODWIN (Howell, NJ/Howell) timed 31.28 in the 200-meter dash, finishing 35
th.
NJCU will be inactive for more than six weeks, before returning to action on Saturday, January 24 in the Wesleyan University Invitational in Middletown, CT.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
