Tulane University
at Iowa State Classic
Phillips Leads Tulane on First Day of Iowa State Classic
Feb 9, 2007 | Cross Country & Track
Feb. 9, 2007
AMES, Iowa - For the second week in a row, Green Wave athletes are competing against some of the nation's best in a prestigious national meet. And once again, the Tulane runners are proving themselves up to the challenge at Iowa State's Lied Recreational Center.
Junior Aubrey Phillips ended the first day for Tulane with an impressive showing in the 5,000-meter run. Phillips' time of 17:39.90 was a 43-second improvement over her prior personal best and put her among the top three in Conference USA in the event.
"That's a huge breakthrough for Aubrey," head coach Heather Van Norman said. "We're really excited for her. That was amazing."
Phillips was one of seven Green Wave runners active on the first day of the two-day event, with most of the Wave's participants competing in the 200-meter dash. Senior Gloria Asumnu took sixth out of the 146 the event with a time of 24.03 seconds. Though the time was an improvement over last week's time at the Meyo Invitational, it was just shy of provisionally qualifying her for the NCAA Championships. In addition to Asumnu's performance, junior Kyra Lobbins set a personal best in the same race, besting her time from last week's race at Notre Dame by running the event in 25.45 seconds. But Van Norman was proud of the performance of all five participants.
"They all did a little bit better, which is always good to see," she said. "Each of these races are a chance to prepare for the conference championship and get your confidence up so hopefully you can do something really special."
Tulane will return to action tomorrow in the second day of the classic, with 12 runners and a relay team competing for the Wave.
"We're looking for good stuff for tomorrow," Van Norman said. "The meet is very powerful within itself and I hope that in each of our events we can improve. We're looking at every event we're in and trying to better ourselves for our conference meet.
"The whole team wants to do really well. My girls take a lot of pride in putting on those Tulane jerseys."
Here are the results from today's events:
60-METER HURDLES
55. Nicolette Taku, 9.52
200-METER DASH
6. Gloria Asumnu, 24.03 (Season Best)
52. Kyra Lobbins, 25.45 (Season Best)
58. Olivia Kizzee, 25.51
71. Shanon Beelendorf, 25.80
83. Taneekwa Ross, 25.92 (Personal Best)
5,000-METER DASH
NON-SEEDED SECTION
18. Aubrey Phillips, 17:39.90 (Personal Best)
For complete results from the first day of the Iowa State Classic, click here.
--Roll Wave--
Players Mentioned
