Feb. 9, 2008

CARBONDALE, Ill. ---- The Samford indoor track and field team placed 25 student-athletes in the top 10 of numerous events this weekend at the McDonald's Invitational hosted by Southern Illinois. The two-day event concluded Saturday evening with the Samford men's team placing fourth overall and the women's team placing eighth overall.

Freshman distance runner Hillary Neal headlined the Samford successes for the women on Saturday with a first place finish in the mile with a time of 5:04.13. Senior Britney Almaguer also finished close at the top in the same event, earning 12th place (5:15.54).

Cameron Bean headlined the success for the men with a first place finish in the 3000-meter race. Bean ran the race in 8:55.08, with Drew Anderwald right behind at third place (8:56.79) and Patrick Ollinger at 12th (9:21.11).

In other track events, Scott Buess placed ninth in the men's 60-meter dash with a time 7.29 while Morgan Tyler took ninth in the women's 60-meter hurdles. Michael Schwartz and Scott Cope took seventh (4:28.87) and eighth (4:30.33), respectively, in the men's mile with Chas Keithan right behind at 10th (4:33.78).

Ashley Flowers and Ashley Dance finished seventh (58.06) and ninth (59.21), respectively, in the women's 400-meter dash, while Marissa Brokaw and Hillary Neal earned fourth (2:20.09) and fifth (2:21.68) in the 800-meter event. Will Denton, Scott Cope and Michael Schwartz earned third (1:57.76), sixth (1:59.18) and (2:00.57) ninth, respectively in the men's 800-meter event.

Ina Ables placed third in the women's 3000-meter race with a time of 10:22.04 while Lauren Pilcher finished ninth (10:52.43) and Katie Almand took 12th (10:55.55). The women's 4x400-meter relay team (Ashley Dance, Sarah McGough, Morgan Tyler, Ashley Flowers) took fourth while the men's team (Sean Rogers, Alex Gainous, Zac Epperson, Will Denton) took ninth.

In the field events, Morgan Tyler placed sixth in the women's long jump with a jump of 18'1.75" and Asa Ackerson took 10th in the men's event with a jump of 20'6.5" while John Irvine finished 11th (20'0.25") Mary Barron placed sixth in the women's pole vault (10'6") while Zac Epperson placed fourth (14'3.25"). Morgan Tyler took fifth in the women's triple jump with a jump of 36'10.5" and Asa Ackerson tied for fifth in the men's high jump with a height of 5'11.25".

Next up for the Bulldogs is the Clemson Tiger Invitational, Feb. 15-16.