Sports > February 21, 2008

By Susie Manship | Staff writer

A small group from the women’s and men’s track teams headed to Fayetteville, Ark. on Feb. 15-16 to compete in the Tyson Invitational. Hosted by Arkansas University, the Deacs faced competition from 15 schools ranked in the Top 25.

“It was a highly competitive and prestigious meet and overall was a good chance for us to race in a competitive field,” junior Nicole Schappert said.

Senior Caitlin Chrisman led the team with an overall fifth place finish in the 5000m run.

Her time of 16:44.98 surpassed the NCAA provisional mark of 16:45.00.

In her first time ever running a 5000m race, freshman Anna Nosenko earned sixth overall with a time of 16:56.73.

On the men’s side, senior Kevin Marion finished fourth overall in the long jump with a 23-09.00 mark and sophomore Jon Reid set a personal record of 48.22 in the 400m dash.

Other members of the team did not perform as they would have hoped, but they gained from the competition.

“The team overall competed, did their best, and raced well on a national level,” Reid said.

On Feb. 22-23, the team travels to Blacksburg, Va. for the third time in this season to compete in the Virginia Tech Challenge.

This will be the team’s last indoor regular season meet before the ACC Championships Feb. 28-March 1 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

“We will use what we learned at Tyson and carry it into ACCs,” Schappert said.

“We are all excited for the ACC Championship and are looking to improve upon our team place from last year.”