Recapping the Records
5/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Last week was a very successful one for the Liberty men's and women's track & field teams, with five new school records being set, highlighted by Sam Chelanga's NCAA record in the men's 10K. Nick Pierce caught up with Chelanga and head coach Brant Tolsma to recap the Flames' recent accomplishments.
Running his first race since the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, Chelanga clocked a 27:08.39 to place third in Saturday evening's highly competitive Kim McDonald Memorial 10K at Stanford's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. The redshirt junior's time sliced 20 seconds off of his existing collegiate record, which had been set April 24, 2009 at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley, Calif.
A pair of Lady Flame redshirt seniors also posted Liberty and Big South records at Stanford. Jaime Watson clocked a 2:06.09 in the women's 800, while classmate Ashley Osborne's record-setting 34:00.60 in the women's 10K was a 95-second personal best.
On April 29, at the Liberty Twilight Qualifier, program records went down in the women's 100-meter hurdles and women's hammer. Sophomore Olivia Charnuski ran a 13.65 in the 100 hurdles prelims, breaking Delethea Quarles' record which had lasted for 21 years to the day. Junior Melinda Bendik then extended her own Liberty standard in the hammer to 181-6.
A handful of Liberty competitors will participate in the Duke Twilight meet on Sunday, making one final attempt to record IC4A and ECAC qualifiers. The one-day event will start at 2 p.m., with the men's hammer.
