Throwers Pace Spartan Women to Second on Opening Day of UAA Outdoor Championship
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Case Western Reserve University women's track & field senior thrower Amanda Kline (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) was victorious in a pair of events leading the Spartans to a successful day one performance on day one of the 2012 University Athletic Association Outdoor Championship at a rainy, cool and windy Gesling Stadium.
Washington University-St. Louis sits atop the team standings after amassing 83.5 team points, while Case isn't far behind in second with 70 points. The University of Chicago (Ill.) is a distant third with 39 points followed by Emory University (Ga.) in fourth (34.5), New York University in fifth (19), Brandeis University (Mass.) in sixth (14) and host Carnegie Mellon University rounds out the team scores in seventh (12).
The second and final day of the meet at Gesling Stadium is scheduled to begin Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m.
During the shot put event, Kline led a quartet of Spartan scorers as she launched the weight to a distance of 43 feet and one-half inch. That mark currently ranks within the top-20 in all of NCAA Division III. Juniors Emily Mueller (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) and Jenna Pansky (Parma, Ohio/Beaumont) finished second and fifth in the event with tosses of 38'6.75" and 36'1.25", respectively. Also, junior Emily Tran (Beaverton, Ore./Southridge) had a toss of 34'6.25" for sixth.
Kline also picked up a conference championship in the hammer throw, as her winning toss traveled a distance of 153'1" -- 19' ahead of sophomore Christina Tam (Trinidad and Tobago/Bishops) in second with her throw of 134'1. Rounding out the top-three placers was Tran with a throw of 130'4".
In the pole vault event, freshman Sophia Herzog (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) and senior Erin Hollinger (Chardon, Ohio/Chardon) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Each cleared the bar at a height of 9'10.5", but Herzog took fifth via fewer total misses.
On the track, sophomore Brooke Simpson (Solon, Ohio/Solon) raced to a fifth-place showing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:42.62.
Additionally, numerous Spartans recorded top-eight preliminary times on Saturday advancing to Sunday's finals.
