Brown qualifies for NCAA Championships

Senior breaks her own school record in 400-meter relay

By Ryan Loren
Western Herald

As the rest of Western Michigan University students fight off the summer heat with in-ground pools and air conditioning, senior Danielle Brown and the members of the 4×400-meter relay team continue their school year for at least another two weeks.

Eight members of the Western Michigan University women’s track and field team represented the Broncos in Louisville, Ky. over the weekend at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.

Joining Brown were sophomores Victoria Chatman and Ashley Hunault, senior Jennifer Sabra, freshman Stephanie Okolo, sophomore Sarah Morris, sophomore Leya Munwam and junior Irene Cooper.

Brown turned in one of her strongest performances of the entire season in the 400-meter hurdles after taking first place in the preliminaries with a time of 58.04 seconds and went on to break her own school record in the finals.

While her time of 57.12 seconds fell only 0.12 seconds behind first place finisher Deserea Brown from the University of Illinois, it was more than enough to qualify her for the NCAA Championship in two weeks.

Brown, Sabra, Munwam and Chatman made up the 4×400 meter relay team finishing seventh with a time of 3:36.20 to advance on to the championships.

The same team took first place in the Mid-American Conference Championship two weeks ago.

Chatman finished ninth in the preliminaries of the 400-meter dash, only 0.13 seconds behind the eighth and final qualifying position.

After taking first place in the MAC Championship two weeks ago, the 4×100-meter relay team of Hunault, Chatman, Sabra, and Okolo only mustered a 10th place finish in the race preliminaries.

In the discus throw, Morris took 19th place with a best distance of 45.57 meters. Cooper also finished in 19th place in the hammer throw with a best distance of 53.46 meters as Sabra finished 13th in the 400-meter hurdles.

Before the finals Chatman, Brown, Munwam, Sabra, Hunault and Okolo received First Team All-MAC honors.

The NCAA Championships will be held in Fayetteville, Ark. from June 10-13.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on May 31 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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