April 18-19, 2008

Complete SAPC Results

BANNER ELK, N.C.—The St. Andrews Presbyterian College men’s and women’s track & field teams combined to finish third out of seven Conference Carolinas institutions in the 2008 Tri-Conference Bobcat Open hosted by Lees-McRae College on Friday and Saturday.

The Knights only competed in 22 of 40 scoring events but were still able to tally 119 points to finish ahead of rivals Queens University of Charlotte, Mount Olive College, Erskine College, and Limestone College. Lees-McRae and Anderson University took the top two spots, respectively.

The St. Andrews track & field student-athletic also competed against individuals from five South Atlantic Conference (SAC) and six Appalachian Athletic Conference schools.

The Knights had three overall champions, two runner-ups, a third place finisher and a total of 21 top-10 performances.

Junior distance runner Mitch Cooper (Virginia Beach, Va.) led the men’s side winning two events and finishing second in another. Cooper won the 10,000-meter run with a personal record (PR) time of 32.32.00 while also winning the 3000-meter steeplechase by nine seconds with a speed of 9:47.43. Cooper rounded out his day with a runner-up time of 15:45.09 in the 5000-meter run.

St. Andrews had a one-two finish in the 10,000 as sophomore Pedro Tapia Jr. (Sanford, N.C.) followed Cooper as the only two runners out of 26 entrants to post sub-33 minute times. Tapia crossed the finish line in 32:57.00 while also adding a strong fourth place finish in the 5,000 clocking in at 15:57.48.

The Lady Knights earned a bunch of points for SAPC in the throwing events. Freshman Kristin Zipkin (Canton, Ga.) won the shot put title with an impressive distance of 11.68m while classmate Jacquelyn Adcock (Damascus, Md.) finished sixth with a PR length of 9.34m.

Adcock was the bronze place finisher out of 23 throwers in the women’s discus throw. Adcock set a new school record with a heave of 29.94m. Sophomore Tyler Lee (Hillsborough, N.C.) finished ninth with a distance of 25.06m while Zipkin had a PR of 23.42m.

Lee and Zipkin added two more top-10 finishes for the Lady Knights with a sixth and ninth place results in the hammer throw, respectively, with distances of 23.59m and 22.04m. Both marks tie their PR’s.

Sophomore Matthew Rogers (Eatonton, Ga.) led the SAPC men’s throwers with three of top-10 finishes. Rogers tied his school and personal record in the hammer throw, finishing eighth with a chuck of 24.76m. Rogers then shattered his own school record in the discus throw with a length of 33.63m finishing 10th. Rogers capped his day with a ninth place result of 11.65m in the shot put. Senior Caelan Garner (Rameur, N.C.) just finished outside the top-10 in the javelin throw with a toss of 38.90m.

Junior Charles Phillips (Decatur, N.C.) competed in three jumping events for the Knights and finished no worse than 12th in any competition. Phillips leaped 6.47m in the long jump to break the school record. Phillips’ highest result was a fifth place showing of 12.66m in the triple jump. Sophomore Cameron Cofield (Chesapeake, Va.) added a 10th place finish in the triple jump with a total distance of 11.97m.

The Lady Knights wrapped up their completion in two distance races. Junior Alyson Trovato (Cedar Park, Texas) and senior Veronica Gobeyn (Mullins, S.C.) finished sixth and 10th, respectively, in the 1,500m run with blazing times of 5:03.25 and 5:17.81. Trovato posted her second 6th place result of the Championships in the 5,000m run, finishing the race in 19:07.40.

Other men’s highlights of the Tri-Conference Meet include senior Patrick Hogan (Denton, N.C.) setting a PR of 5:04.02 in the 1,500m run; Phillips leading the Knights in the 400m dash (53.39); freshman Josh Pickett (Asheville, N.C.) finishing in the upper-half of the field in the 800m run; and senior Brett Aldrich (Dunellen, N.J.) scoring in the 100m (12.12) and 200m (25.19) dashes.