First Indoor Championship Yields Seventh-Place Finish

Women's Track and Field Robert Carnes/Sports Communications

First Indoor Championship Yields Seventh-Place Finish

JONESBORO, Ark. — The Georgia State women's track and field team tied for seventh place out of 12 teams in the 2013 Sun Belt Indoor Championships held Feb. 24-25 at the Arkansas State Convocation Center.

The Panthers scored a total of 31 points after two days of competition, the same score earned by Louisiana-Lafayette. Seventh was also where GSU closed out the first day of the meet after scoring 10 points. Host Arkansas State captured the women's title with 122.5 points.

The meet was the first ever indoor conference championship for the Georgia State program whose previous two leagues did not sponsor an indoor meet. This is the first season for GSU as a member of the Sun Belt.

Twenty-seven of GSU's 31 points came from the distance events, including eight in the 3,000m and seven in both the mile and 5,000m. Senior Katharine Showalter contributed 15 points on her own.

Showalter netted a pair of fourth-place finishes in the mile and 3,000m runs, placed sixth in the 5,000m and ran a leg of the distance-medley relay team that placed seventh.

In the 3,000m, Showalter ran a personal-best time of 10:05.65 just ahead of teammates Anna Sinclair in seventh and Hannah Stefanoff in eighth. Niamh Kearney finished seventh in the mile and eighth in the 800m. Kearney had the fastest qualifying time in the 800m, after running 2:15.34 in the preliminary heat.

Stefanoff, Wande Brewer, Kearney and Showalter combined to form the distance medley that placed seventh in a time of 12:25.07 to score two points.

Georgia State's 4x400m relay team managed a sixth-place finish, worth three points. The team of Tatiana Colbert, Tamara Moore, Jacqueline Obi and Gabby Brooks ran 3:54.11. Moore also qualified for the finals of the 55m dash where the senior placed fifth in 7.14 seconds.

Jennifer Rubel placed fifth in the 5,000m in 17:53.44, just a second faster that Showalter's sixth-place time of 17:54.30. The Georgia State men's team entered their only two competitors of the meet in the 5,000m. Valentin Poncelet delivered the only point for the GSU men with an eighth-place performance.

The Indoor Track and Field season concludes with the national meet on March 8-9 in Fayetteville, Ark. After that, the Panthers will open the 2013 Outdoor Track and Field season with a trip to the UGA Relays in Athens, Ga. on March 15-16.

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