Jan. 27, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The UAB women's indoor track and field team continued its success on Saturday, the second-and-final day of competition at the Niswonger Invitational, hosted by East Tennessee State University. The Blazers' success was highlighted by the top performances by UAB's distance runners, including a first place finish for UAB's distance medley relay.

The team of Genoah Collins, Tara Colvin, Alina Varpiotaite and Whitney Mays clocked a time 12:00.76 to finish in first place. The time also ranks as the fifth fastest time in the UAB record books.

In the 5000-meter run, UAB had five runners finish in the top 10. Sophomore Katie Stepp ran a personal-best 17:55.46 to finish second, while senior Ryanne Fortney also clocked a career-best 18:23.22 and came in seventh place. Senior Elizabeth Ambrus finished third (17:56.85), freshman Kristina Olsen came in eighth (18:33.09) and senior Jennifer Thompson took ninth (18:35.93) in the 5000 meters.

Mays, who was a part of the first-place distance medley team, had a second-place finish as well in the mile run, posting a time of 5:13.18.

In the sprint events that finished up on Saturday, senior Stephanie McCauley and junior Stacey Adewakun finished fifth and sixth respectively in the 60-meter dash with times of 7.59 and 7.77. McCauley also took home a fifth-place finish in the 200-meters, running a 25.37 in the finals. Senior Erin Harris finished sixth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.48 seconds, as well.

Junior Tara Colvin placed sixth overall in the 400-meter dash in 56.58 seconds, and freshman Kendal Hood ended in third place in the 800-meter run in 2:23.08 to give UAB two more top-10 finishes on the day.

The Blazers next competition will be February 2-3 at the MEYO Invitational in South Bend, Ind.