(03-21-09) KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The University of New Haven men's and women's outdoor track and field teams competed at the Walt Disney World Invitational on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21. Kevin Downing and Shannon Gagne both provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100 meter and 200 meter dashes.
Downing, who broke the UNH record in both events, ran a time of 10.62 seconds in the 100 meter dash and qualified first, but finished second. The freshman also ran a UNH record of 21.21 seconds in the 200 meter dash preliminaries and finished second in the finals.
Downing joined Jelani Joslyn, Justin Smith and Tyrone Sawyer in the 4x100 meter relay and qualified for the Penn Relays, the New England Championships and the IC4A Championship with a time of 41.99 seconds. The Chargers 1,600 sprint medley relay team of Downing, Sawyer , Alaric Best and Sylvestre Maldonado won the event in a time of 3:39.57.
Gagne broke her previous 100 meter dash record with a provisionally qualifying time of 12.06 and finished fourth. She also ran a time of 24.79 in the prelims of the 200 meter dash to provisionally qualify. Lauren DiMitruck led the New Haven distance runners with a third place finish in the 1,500 meter run with a time of 5:06.34. Melisa Tempesta finished second in the 3,000 meter steeplechase with a time of 12:13.12 and the women's 4x100 meter relay (Danielle Howell, Gagne, Alesha Chu Foo and Ayana Myers) finished third with a time of 48.42 seconds.
Chu Foo also finished third in the high jump with a height of 1.52 meters. Gagne added a third place finish in the long jump with a distance of 5.55 meters.
The Chargers men's and women's outdoor track and field teams return to action on Saturday, April 4 at the Coast Guard Invitational.
Complete Results
