June 11, 2008
Des Moines, Iowa -
The Bethune-Cookman University women's 4x100 meter relay team finished fourth in their heat (13th overall) on Wednesday evening as they competed in the preliminary round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
"I am very proud of the way the girls ran, but it just wasn't our day today," expressed second-year head coach Garfield Ellenwood. "We see what we have to do to get better, and we will certainly work on that next year. But I am happy at a great starting point for us."
According to archives, this was the first-ever women's 4x100 meter relay to reach the NCAA Championships in outdoor competition in Bethune-Cookman history. Thus, showing the fabulous job that Ellenwood and his staff continues to do each and every day in Daytona Beach.
The team, comprised of Tavia Burke, Rockel Mitchell, Christina Roundtree and Dianne Munroe, were all newcomers to the Wildcats program this year under Ellenwood and his staff. They ran a time of 44.78 seconds in their preliminary round which was good enough for fourth place in the heat. That was the 13th best time overall for the first round--not good enough for them to advance to the semifinals. They ran alongside Texas A&M (43.19q), Texas-El Paso(44.10q), Ole Miss (44.66) and Kansas State (45.14). Texas A&M took the overall winning time for the heat while also holding the overall bets time.
The event, hosted by Drake University at Drake Stadium, continues through Saturday.
Bethune-Cookman has both the 4x100 women's squad and star freshman Ronnie Ash competing in this year's national championships. This is the first time in recent years B-CU has had anyone compete at all.
"I really think Ronnie can compete in this year's competition," admits Ellenwood. "This is a great field of athletes competing here, but Ronnie has trained very hard, and I think he's ready to go on Thursday."
Ronnie Ash, currently holding the second-fastest time in the nation for the 110m hurdles, will run on Thursday at 4:50 pm [CST]. If he advances, Ash and the rest of the NCAA Championships will be broadcast live on CBS between 8 and 11 p.m. for the semifinals.
"I feel this program is waiting to explode, and showing what we can do to the nation in just two years is impressive, but we want more," explains Ellenwood. "This program is just waiting to take off, and I really want to be the captain that lifts it off the ground."
For more information and live results for the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships, please visit http://www.flashresults.com/2008_Meets/outdoor/DivisionI/. You may also call the B-CU Office of Sports Information for updates on all B-CU participating student-athletes.
