Bye Looking For Another Successful Season in 2003
January 10, 2003 | Women's Track and Field
Jan. 10, 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Coming off the best season Louisville has produced in recent women's track and field history, second-year head coach Warren Bye is looking for even more success in 2003. The Cardinals return 20 veterans from last year's squad, including recordholders in eight indoor and outdoor events.
Last year, the Cardinals finished fifth at the 2002 Conference USA Outdoor Championship, just one point behind fourth-place finisher TCU. The fifth-place showing was the best U of L outdoor finish in C-USA history and the program's highest since the Cards placed fourth at the Metro Conference Championship in 1989.
"It was an exciting three days," said Bye, referring to the 2002 C-USA Championship held at Cardinal Park. "We had some individuals turn in the best performances of their careers, and we came very close to placing higher than any Louisville team before us. Our team was well-balanced, with talent across the board in all of the event areas. This year, after graduating a number of our top performers, we are looking for some student-athletes to step up and fill those shoes. We are also looking to our returning top athletes to lead the way and inspire our newcomers, who comprise a very talented class."
Leading the way for the Cardinals this season will be sophomore high jumper Kelley Bowman, sophomore pole vaulter Jacey Hughes and senior long jumper Brittany Hedgepeth. All three hold school records in their respective events and placed well in the conference.
"We have seen a tremendous amount of growth in our athletes, and these three in particular who will lead us into the 2003 campaign," said Bye. "We are very optimistic about the direction our program is heading. Each year we are putting in place more building blocks to move our team to the national scene of track and field. Our goal is to compete at the national level, and we are getting closer to achieving that goal."
Vertical Jumps
Louisville has only had three women clear 12 feet in the pole vault in school history, and two of them will be competing in 2003. Last year as a freshman, Hughes broke the U of L outdoor pole vault record when she cleared 12-2.5 at Indiana, topping the previous record by two and a half inches. The sophomore from Utica, Ky., who recorded the second-best indoor mark (11-8) ever at U of L, tied for third at the 2002 C-USA Outdoor Championship.
Senior Cindy Roberson, who held the school record prior to Hughes, has also cleared 12 feet on several occasions the past few years. Roberson tied Hughes for third place at the conference outdoor meet last year, equaling her finishes at the 2001 C-USA indoor and outdoor meets.
In the high jump, Bowman will be joined by junior Mindy Helman in the event. Bowman earned USATF Junior National All-America honors over the summer when she placed sixth overall at the meet. The sophomore from Mt. Vernon, Ky., had a stellar collegiate debut last year as she set both the U of L indoor and outdoor high jump records with marks of 5-9.75 and 5-8.75, respectively. Bowman finished second in the event at both the indoor and outdoor C-USA Championships.
Helman cleared a personal-best height of 5-6 last year during the outdoor season and will try to challenge Bowman's school records this year.
Horizontal Jumps
The Cardinals return three Conference USA finalists in the long jump in seniors Brittany Hedgepeth and Lissette Shannon and sophomore Ify Akubeze, and all are capable of placing among the top at the conference meets.
Hedgepeth became just the second woman in school history to jump 19 feet, a feat she accomplished twice last season. The Benton Harbor, Mich., native finished third at the 2002 C-USA Outdoor Championship and set the school's indoor record with a fourth-place jump of 18-10 at the conference meet.
Shannon jumped a personal-best 17-9 at last year's conference outdoor meet to place ninth. Akubeze, who redshirted during the outdoor season, finished ninth in the long jump at the 2002 C-USA Indoor Championship with a personal-best mark of 18-1.5. A Cincinnati native, she will also compete in the triple jump for the Cardinals, an event in which she has recorded two of the top five indoor jumps of all time, the best being 36-11.75.
Freshman Shareka Nance gives the Cards four solid jumpers. Nance earned all-metro and all-state honors at Eureka High School in St. Louis, Mo., last year.
Throws
Perhaps the most inexperienced area for the Cardinals will be in the throwing events as they will need to fill the departures of Shola Kadiri and Trish Young. Kadiri, the 2002 C-USA Indoor Athlete of the Year, and Young combined for eight conference titles and six school records during their careers.
A pair of freshmen in Katie Wilson and Emily Kost will step in and try to continue the chain of success the Cards have had in this area for the past five years.
Wilson is a two-time USATF Junior National All-America and North Dakota state champion in the javelin. Last year she recorded the fifth best high school throw in the nation.
Kost will compete in the shot put, hammer and weight throw events. During her prep career at New Albany High School, she won sectional titles in the shot put and discus and set school records in both events.
Sprints
Alanna Mestelle and Marian McDonald, two of the fastest women to ever run for U of L, return for their senior years. The two sprinters were members of the school's record-setting 4x400m relay team from last year.
Mestelle holds school indoor records in the 60m (7.64) and 200m (25.56) dashes and the outdoor record for the 100m (11.96) dash.
McDonald has recorded five of the school's all-time top-10 times in the 100m dash and two of the top three in the 60m dash.
Middle Distance/Distance
Junior transfer Amanda Bell will make an immediate impact on the Cards this season. While at Indiana University, Bell was the Hoosiers' top cross country runner as a freshman and sophomore before stress fractures in both legs slowed her down last year. As a freshman, she earned All-Big Ten honors after placing sixth at the conference cross country meet. Her best indoor mile time at IU (4:51.67) is less than one second off the U of L record and a repeat of her 3000m indoor time of 9:52.75 would make her just the second Cardinal to break the 10-minute mark.
Junior Emily Daunhauer led the Cardinal cross country team at five of seven races this past fall and should be one of the top runners during the track season.
Sophomore Corryn McCrae and freshmen Allissa Moore and Crystal Duffala will also give the Cards some depth in the distance events. McCrae was one of the top three runners for the cross country team, while Duffala had a solid freshman campaign in the fall. Moore was the Indiana state runner-up in the 800m last year at Pike High School.
Senior Marea Ingwersen holds the school record in the 3000m steeplechase and hopes to improve on that time during her final season.
Hurdles
Seniors Stefanie Wooten and Carrie Besser will run the 400m hurdles this spring. Wooten qualified for the finals in the event at the C-USA Championship and finished ninth overall. Junior Kelly Faber, who redshirted during the outdoor season, ran the second-fastest 55m hurdles time (8.59) in school history during the indoor season.
Heptathlon
The Cardinals have a pair of standouts in the heptathlon this year in Faber and Helman. Faber placed sixth in the heptathlon at the 2001 C-USA Championship with 4,420 points, the fifth-best total at U of L. After redshirting last spring, the Carol Stream, Ill., native should challenge the school record of 4,986 held by Jen Carlsen. Helman will continue to improve in each event after posting 4,246 points last year at the conference meet.
