Season Preview
2009 A-SUN CROSS COUNTRY ALLFRESHMAN CHRISTIAN RITACCO tian Gamble (Columbia, S.C./Lower Richland) and Camille Masanotti (Ladsen, S.C./Stratford).
CROSS COUNTRY ALL-A-SUN SELECTION CAROLYNE CHELULEI
Mars Hill). Last season at the Furman Invitational (4/11), Walker earned a fourth place finish with a personal-best of 15-07.50 in the long jump. Her individual record of 34-00.75 in the triple jump came at the A-Sun Championships (5/15).
Distance Last season, Emily Tangwar (Eldoret, Kenya/Lareto) was named the team MVP during the indoor season after she won the 5,000-meter run at the A-Sun Indoor Championships (2/20) with a school-record time of 17:32.95. At the outdoor championships, Carolyne Chelulei (Eldoret, Kenya/Alliance Girls) recorded personal-best times in the 1,500-meter run (4:45.09) and 5,000meter run (18:13.59). Jemeli Sang (Eldoret, Kenya/Biwott Ngelel-Tarit) posted a second-place finish in the 10,000-meter run at the championship event with a time of 36:54.73.
Walker will be joined by four newcomers in 2010. Christian Gamble, Camille Masanotti and Abigail Osborne (Abbeville, S.C./Abbeville) will compete in jumps for Upstate this season. Meanwhile, Erica Farler will be the first Spartan to ever compete in the pole vault.
Throws Aside from competing in sprints, junior LaTerrica Blocker will compete in throwing events in 2010. A season ago, she set a career-best toss of 126-06 in the hammer throw at the A-Sun Championships en route to a top-10 finish. She will also compete in the shot put and discus throw this season.
“Like the men’s team, our women’s distance runners are on pace to have a great track and field season,” said Blackwelder. “Jemeli and Carolyne were neck and neck every race and I expect that trend to continue.” Joan Tangwar (Eldoret, Kenya/St. Joseph’s Girls) posted a pair of top-four finishes at the A-Sun Outdoor Championships. Tangwar finished third in the 1,500 meters followed by a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run. Lauren Walker (Columbia, S.C./Lugoff-Elgin) posted a career-best fourth-place finish (11:56.47) in just her second steeplechase run. Meanwhile, Jillian Finney (Columbia, S.C./ Dutch Fork) competed in the mile run during the indoor season, posting a time of 6:50.92 at the Appalachian Limited (1/17). Joining the six returners are junior-transfer Mary Alexander (Greenville, S.C./ Spartanburg C.C.) and freshman Laura Transue (Greenville, S.C./T.L. Hanna).
Jumps/Pole Vault Returning to lead the Spartans is junior Gabrielle Walker (Chattanooga, Tenn./
6