May 31, 2003
Complete Results
FAIRFAX, VA ... The George Mason University men's track & field team earned automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in two events after successful performances at the inaugural NCAA East Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championships at George Mason Stadium on Saturday.
After two rain delays the men's and women's teams from Florida swept the team titles, with 105 and 99 points, respectively. Florida State finished second among men's teams with 74 points, while defending NCAA outdoor champions, South Carolina, finished second in the women's standings with 77 points. George Mason's men's team finished 15th with 14.33 points while the Patriots' women's team finished in a tie for 39th with two points.
The men's 4x100-meter relay of freshman Sammy Sesay (Hyattsville, MD/Eleanor Roosevelt), senior Serge Bengono (Yaounde, Cameroon/Younde), senior Henry Harris (Cleveland Heights, OH/Essex CC) and sophomore Richard Phillips (St. Catherine, Jamaica/Abilene Christian) placed third in the event in a season-best 39.70 seconds - just .03 seconds off the school record set in 1995. The top three relays - Florida, winning in a George Mason Stadium record-setting 39.35 seconds, Florida A&M (39.45) and George Mason - earn automatic berths into the NCAA national meet.
"I'm totally excited about it," said sixth-year head men's coach Dalton Ebanks. "The thing that really makes this relay go is that these four kids stick together and really like each other. Since school has been out they have really been working hard to get this event together."
Phillips also advanced to the NCAA Championships in the 110-meter hurdles after finishing fourth in a season-best 13.94 seconds. The top-five winners from individual events automatically advance to the national championships. Florida sophomore Josh Walker won the event in 13.42 seconds.
Bengono also competed in the finals of the men's 100 meters today, but with a sixth-place finish in 10.45 seconds, just misses the automatic qualification. Bengono still has a chance of qualifying for the national meet, as six to eight "wild card" qualifiers will be chosen to complete the field.
Freshman Alyce Williams (Palm Coast, FL/Flagler Palm Coast) scored the only points for the women's team with a seventh-place finish in the triple jump. She recorded a season-best mark of 41 feet, 10 ? inches.
The women's 4x400-meter relay of freshman Alycia Williams (Palm Coast, FL/Flagler Palm Coast), sophomore Sheena Davidson (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech), junior Kim Morgan (Houston, TX/Alief Hastings) and junior Sheena Goss (Elk Grove, CA/Laguna Creek) finished 12th in a season-best 3:40.74. The relay from South Carolina, the defending NCAA outdoor national champions in the event, won in 3:35.45.
The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held at California State University in Sacramento, CA, from June 11-14.
