Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Mountain West Conference
CSU women secure first Mountain West outdoor title
5/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Outdoor Track & Field
May 17, 2008
Entire meet results | Saturday Results | Men's final team scores | Women's final team scores Quotes
FORT WORTH, Texas - Like placing a matching bookend on a mantle filled with masterpieces, the Colorado State women finished as well as they started in concluding the conference championships Saturday with the program's first Mountain West title in outdoor track and field.
"They really, really put it on the line," said Head Coach Brian Bedard, voted Mountain West women's Coach of the Year. "And that was from start to finish, really from the first event to the last. There was no let-up in these girls at all. They just kept the accelerator down and didn't look back."
Paced by senior Emily Pearson, who captured the championships' high-point award (26.25) for the second straight year, the Rams ran away with the meet, outdistancing runner-up BYU by a 187-141 margin. The Cougars had claimed seven of the previous eight outdoor titles.
"I told the girls afterward, `I don't know if you fully understand the importance of this. You've made history for Colorado State,'" Bedard said. "This is history. We've never won a conference championship on the women's side, in the WAC or the Mountain West Conference.
"I've been here 20 years and I've had to live through some tough performances at the conference meet, getting beat up by BYU and some of the other teams. This is big."
Pearson was big Saturday, as she was all week. She took second in the 100-meter hurdles (13.68 seconds), and ran the first leg of the Rams' 4x100-meter relay, which along with Tanesha Johnson, Learsha Jones and Janay DeLoach, established a school record (45.49).
"They were a really determined group," Bedard said. "And I don't know if we could have had a more perfect meet. We scored everywhere we were supposed to, and then some. When that happens, it's really special, because we've been on the other end of it where maybe we missed an opportunity or two, and there was none of that."
Missy Faubus capitalized on her opportunity in the discus Saturday. She won the event with a toss of 168 feet, 5 inches, giving the Rams their fourth individual title in that competition over the last five seasons, following Katie Hansen (2006) and Loree Smith (2004-05).
Kristen Hemphill joined the group of individual champions in winning a grueling 5,000-meter race in 17:32.14, CSU's first-ever MWC title in that event, and first conference crown since Marne Findlay took WAC honors in 1997. Hemphill's feat, along with her teammates' efforts in that race and the 10,000 meters, were especially impressive, Bedard said.
"They were running in probably 86 degrees, high humidity, tough conditions and they competed really well."
Now, the Rams will celebrate by boarding a Colorado-bound plane and enjoying a few days of well-earned respite. The season is far from over, as a large group of athletes will begin preparations Wednesday for the NCAA regional, in Lincoln, Neb., May 30-31.
"We celebrated when they were handing out the awards," Bedard said. "I did a little team speech at the end. Just a lot of thank yous, to our athletes and to my staff. I just really appreciate the effort they put in. I got a great staff. I'm really proud of them."
The CSU athletic department in 2007-08 now has won four Mountain West championships - that's one quarter of its 16 sports -- with volleyball winning its regular-season title, and women's cross country and men's golf also securing respective crowns.
The Rams now have won three Mountain West championships in track and field, including the 2006 women's indoor title and the 2002 men's indoor crown.
MEN'S RECAP: After a promising first three days, despite the loss of inspirational leader Kevin Johnson Wednesday, the CSU men sustained a few setbacks Saturday and finished in fourth with 126 points, behind BYU (210), TCU (192) and Air Force (135).
"We ran out of bullets," Bedard said. "We had some outstanding performances on the men's side, just not enough of them."
One of those performances was Drew Morano, who as expected won the 400-meter dash (45.98). Another was by Ryan Friese, who took second in the 800 meters (1:49.70).
"He was leading probably with 20 meters to go," Bedard said. "This is a kid that's a converted 400-meter runner, a triple jumper, running the 800 for the first time, and really running in a fast, fast final in the championships. The 800's pretty stacked in our conference. To see Friese almost win the darn thing, I thought that was a great effort."
Meanwhile, Nnamdi Agwu captured second in the triple jump (47-00.75), and Nigel Joseph placed third in both the 110-meter hurdles (110.70) and 400-meter hurdles (52.28).
