By Andrew Krumme
Louisville track and field hosted its first meet of the season Saturday and turned in solid results for the day. The Cards won 13 titles and set five new school records.
“I’m excited about what I saw today because it was a great day of track and field at Cardinal Park," U of L Head Coach Ron Mann said. Louisville welcomed athletes from Ohio State, Purdue, Missouri, DePaul, Butler, Xavier, Dayton and Indianapolis.
Several of the school records featured LaShondra Davis and junior Wesley Korir. Davis set a new university record in route to winning the women’s 100-meter dash with a time of 11.84 seconds. Korir, who has already gained national attention for his cross country results, took home the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:49:52, surpassing former Cardinal star Jeff Beyst who set the mark over ten years ago.
The real story on the day was several more Cardinals earning NCAA regional qualifying marks. Emily Turland, Kelly Bowman, Jennifer Hartig, Robert Amedee and Brad Keys used the home field advantage to turn in good enough performances to compete in the regional meet that is just four weeks away. Coach Mann was thrilled. “With the four NCAA regional qualifiers today and a total of 16 on the season, we’ve exceeded our early season goal of 14 with four weeks left until the NCAA regional,” he said.
Turland’s 158-11-foot throw in the discus earned her a second shot in the regional meet to go along with already qualifying in the hammer throw. Hartig qualified for the regionals for the second time in her career in the pole vault, while Amedee and Keys’ times in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles respectively earned them their first trip to the NCAA meet in Knoxville this May.
Mann and the track and field team will compete next in the prestigious Penn Relays this weekend in Philadelphia. The Big East Championships then follow the first weekend in May.
