SU men finish second at Mason-Dixon Indoor Championships, women place fourth

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - After a successful run through the first few indoor meets of the 2009 season the Salisbury University track and field teams competed in the Mason-Dixon Conference Indoor Championships on Sunday hosted by Christopher Newport University inside the Freeman Center.

The men's team repeated its second-place finish in the championships from a year ago with 87 points as they edged out Capital Athletic Conference rival University of Mary Washington (77 points) and Methodist claimed 59 points for the fourth-place finish. Christopher Newport ran away with the men's championship as it posted an impressive 173 points to defend its title. Salisbury's women's team came in fourth place to match its finish from last year as well as the Sea Gulls posted 58 points. Mary Washington came three points shy of the upset over the Captains (110 points) as the Eagles posted 107 points. Frostburg State rounded out the top three with 82 points.

The Sea Gulls garnered 13 all-conference awards in various events and broke a school record en route to their strong showing at the championships. The top three places in each event earn All-Mason-Dixon honors.

Junior Brandon Fugett stole the spotlight for the Sea Gulls as he continued to improve upon his outstanding season thus far and broke the only school record on the day. Fugett crushed his own school mark in the shot put which he set three weeks ago at the Thomas invitational as he propelled the shot put 51 feet, .75 inches to set the new school record. The toss was also special for Fugett as it provisionally qualified him for the NCAA Division III Championships which will be held March 13-14 at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind. Fugett also earned an all-conference award in the weight throw as he finished third with a toss of 50 feet, six inches.

Sprinters Justin Acker and Delannie Spriggs provisionally qualified for a chance to run at the NCAA championships in two weeks in the 55-meter dash. Spriggs, who provisionally qualified two weeks ago at the Vince Brown Invitational held at the Freeman Center, improved upon his qualifying time as he ran a time of 6.37 seconds which was just one-tenth of second off of the Division III automatic qualifying time of 6.36 seconds. Spriggs took second in the event as Methodist sprinter Tazz Petty ran an incredible time of 6.34 seconds. Acker was the sixth and final qualifier in the preliminaries but turned it up a notch in the finals and sprinted his way to a provisionally qualifying time of 6.45 seconds which was good enough for a fifth-place finish.

Seniors Quentin Briscoe and Bobby Price were the other Sea Gulls in addition to Fugett on the men's side to garner multiple all-conference awards. Briscoe he finished second in the 55-meter hurdles (8.20 seconds) in front of sophomore teammate Jesse Kolodziejski (8.25 seconds), who finished third to earn all-conference honors. Briscoe and Price were also members of the 4x400 meter relay team along with Acker and junior Michael Marfut, who finished second (3:31.34). Price placed second in the high jump as he cleared six feet, 5.5 inches. The Sea Gulls also took third in the medley distance relay as the team of sophomores Chris Barnard and Matt Miller along with juniors Travis Boccher and Wayne Turner finished with a time of 10:57.93.

On the women's side, freshman Jennifer Houghton had an outstanding day for the Sea Gulls as she placed in both throwing events. Houghton took home first place in the shot put as she launched it 34 feet, 8.25 inches. Freshman Holly Defnet had a great performance in the shot put as well as she tossed it 33 feet, four inches for a third-place finish. Both Houghton and Defnet had good tosses in the weight throw as Houghton (second place) threw the weight 38 feet, 1.5 inches and Defnet (fourth place) chucked it 36 feet, five inches.

Senior Jenn Bulger joined Houghton as the only Sea Gulls to collect multiple all-conference women's awards as she took second in the high jump (four feet, 11.5 inches) and third in the 400-meter dash (1:02.53).

The maroon and gold will head to Fairfax, Va., on Sunday, March 1, to compete in the George Mason University Winter Games.

2009 All-Mason-Dixon Conference Indoor Championship Honorees from Salisbury University

  * - SU school record