COMPLETE RESULTS


NEW YORK - Junior Zakiyyah Richardson (Morrisville, Pa./Pennsbury) will be heading to the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships next weekend as she hit the qualifying mark in the 60 meter dash to highlight the Griffins at the ECAC Indoor Championship at the New York City Armory over the weekend.

Richardson finished the preliminaries of the 60 meter dash with the fastest time of 7.68, ranking her third in the country and just .01 behind second. This was her third fastest race ever and fastest of the season. The time (7.68) would have finished fifth last year at NCAA Indoor Championships. She moved on to the finals and finished second overall with a time of 7.74 which was her second fastest time of the year.

In the women's 4x200 meters Richardson, senior Christina Smith (Springfield, Pa./Springfield), junior Christine Homont (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Hubert), and sophomore Cierra Adkins (Philadelphia, Pa./Hallahan) finished 27th overall with a time of 1:48.26. This was the fastest relay of the season for the squad.

Smith returned to the track to finish seventh overall in the 800 meters with a time of 2:16.36, eclipsing her indoor personal best by 1.45 seconds. This time ranks her 57th in the country in the 800m. She just missed the school record (held by Alycia Tranchitella) of 2:16.13.

On the men's side, sophomore Chase Toliver (Mays Landing, N.J./Oackcrest) finished fifth overall in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 8.30 in the finals, notching a season best for him. The time ranks him 18th in country, just .05 out of the cut off for nationals.

Freshman Byron Coleman (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh) was 19th out of 42 competitors in the long jump with a mark of 6.50 meters (21'4").

Senior Chris Selke (Derry, N.H./Pinkerton Academy) qualified in the heptathlon, which he finished fifth a year ago at ECAC's, but had a disappointing ending to his indoor college career as he badly pulled his hamstring in the first event, the 60 meter dash.

Head coach Kevin Clark had high praise for his teams. "The highlight of the weekend was Zakiyyah running the third best time in the country. She is running like we know she can and has yet to become All-American in the 60 meter. We believe this is the year that she takes home hardware during indoor NCAA's (Championship) next week. She's running well at the right time of the year. Next weekend should be very exciting."

"Christina (Smith) ran an awesome race for us. Hitting her PR is a big one to say the least. If runs that much faster than her outdoor PR she will have a very good shot at going to Nationals this Spring. We know she is more than capable to do so."

"Great relay splits for the ladies (4x200's), especially Cierra who split a season best 25.9 as the anchor leg for the relay."

"Chase ran a good race, it could have been a little cleaner over the hurdles. We know he is disappointed since he did not qualify for NCAA's for the first time in his college career. He is a great competitor so I am confident he will bounce back and have a big outdoor season."

"I could not feel any worse for (Chris) Selke. He works harder than anyone I know to get to where he is. To see him end his indoor college career with a bad injury is devastating. We hope for a speedy recovery so we can see him back on the track for his senior year during outdoors."

The NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Roanoke College begins Friday, March 13th at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C. The women's 60 meter preliminaries are scheduled to take place on Friday at 3:30 p.m. with the finals on Saturday at approximately 3:15 p.m.