WTRK: Wright, 4×400 Relay Team Ready for NCAA Championships – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
4X400 makes second-straight trip to nationals; Wright prepping for first run on national stage
COLUMBUS, Ohio Five members of the Ohio State women’s track and field team will represent the Buckeyes at the 2009 NCAA Track and Field Championships June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Ohio State Entries
Letecia Wright 100m Hurdles
Latoya Sanderson, Ashley Caldwell, Ayrizanna Favours, Shaniqua McGinnis 4x400m Relay
Wright will run at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the 100m hurdle prelims, followed by the 4x400m team at 8:25 p.m.
NCAA Championships on CBS Sports
Fans can check out live coverage of the 2009 NCAA Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday. CBS College Sports will carry the action beginning at 7:00 pm ET Friday, with CBS (Channel 10, Time Warner and WOW Cable) hitting the airwaves Saturday at 1:00 pm ET.
The “Wright” Stuff
Sophomore Letecia Wright will be making her first national championship appearance for the Buckeyes when she takes to the track Friday in the 100m hurdle preliminaries. Wright has been one of the most consistent performers for Ohio State throughout the indoor and outdoor campaigns the highlight of her season was a second-place finish at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships May 17 before posting a PR at the NCAA Mideast Regionals two weeks ago in Louisville.
Wright finished fourth at the Mideast Regional Championships May 31 with a season-best time of 13.28, 15th-best qualifying mark in the field. Michigan All-American Tiffany Ofili, the Mideast and Big Ten champion in the event is the favorite to win the title. Head coach Karen Dennis has been pleased with Wright’s progression:
“It really was an outstanding performance by Letecia (at the Mideast Championships),” Dennis said. “Letecia has been running in the 13.4 range and she has to understand that she needs to be consistent before she can drop (her times) and I think she understands that now. But more importantly, Letecia was aggressive. She really showed a lot of moxie, wanted to make it to nationals and she did.”
4xFantastic
2009 marks the second-straight year that an Ohio State 4x400m relay team has qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Former Buckeye Jenna Griffin led a sixth-place finish at the 2008 championships alongside Chandra Krempel, Ayrizanna Favours and Ashley Caldwell. The team earned All-American honors in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:33.73.
This year’s squad again features Favours and Caldwell, along with newcomers Latoya Sanderson and Shaniqua McGinnis. The addition of freshman McGinnis as the team’s anchor propelled the team onto the national stage. A victory at the 2009 Big Ten Championships, the only Buckeye win at the meet, was followed by a third-place finish at the Mideast Championships May 31 (a season-best run of 3:33.96).
“Another relay team headed to nationals,” head coach Karen Dennis said after the regional meet. “This team really did an outstanding job. I have to give Ayrizanna a lot of credit for pulling this new group together and really teaching me to not give up on any of them as well.”
Buckeye History at the National Championships
Ohio State’s lone individual champion came in 2001, when Donica Merriman took home a championship in the 100m hurdles.
The Buckeyes have produced more than 30 All-Americans, including last year’s 4x400m team and former Buckeye Jenna Griffin in the 400m dash. Assistant coach Rosalind Goodwin (now Josephs) took home All-American honors in 2004 and 2005 in the triple jump.
Russ Rogers guided the Buckeyes to a 14th-place finish in 1999, the best in program history. Karen Dennis and the Buckeyes finished 46th at last year’s finals with five points.
Last Time Out
Ohio State competed May 29 and 30 at the 2009 NCAA Mideast Regionals in Louisville, Ky. The Buckeyes qualified a total of five athletes in two events to the NCAA Championships, June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Big Ten champion 4×400 relay team of freshman Latoya Sanderson, junior Ashley Caldwell, senior Ayrizanna Favours and freshman anchor leg Shaniqua McGinnis ran a season-best time and the second-fastest time in school history with their third-place finish of 3:33.96, besting their previous top time of the year of 3:35.98 set at the Jesse Owens Classic.
Earlier in the day, sophomore Letecia Wright qualified for the NCAA championships with a PR time of 13.28 in the 100 hurdles to finish fourth overall. Her time also is the second-best in the Big Ten this season, behind only senior All-American Tiffany Ofili of Michigan.
Sophomore distance runner Jordan Jennewine was 10th in the finals of the 1500m run with a time of 4:32.99. Jennewine enjoyed a stellar outdoor season, setting a school record in the 1500 along the way (4:23.37).
In the javelin, Maggie Mullen, who had been under the weather in the days leading up to the regional finals, capped off a great freshman season with a 19th place throw of 39.09m. Mullen set a school record this season with her throw of 46.64m at the Drake Relays in April, the fourth best mark in the Big Ten this year.
Sarah Foster finished 12th in the finals of the 1500m run in a time of 16:57.59, not enough to qualify the sophomore for the NCAA Championships. Angela Bizzari took the event title in an NCAA Mideast Regional record time of 16:11.00.
