TEAM RESULTS | INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (PDF) | INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (HTML) | ALL-SOCON & ALL-FRESHMAN

DAY ONE RECAP
 
STATESBORO, Ga. – After leading the field yesterday, a late push by Western Carolina in day two of the 2013 SoCon Outdoor Track and Field Championships ultimately dropped the Bulldog men into second place with 209 points while the women finished fifth with 110 points.

“I was really proud of our team today,” said Head Coach Rod Tiffin.  “With all the injuries we had on our women's side, they fought really hard.  Our men's team is getting close and I really could not be more proud of them.”
 
The Catamounts' formidable sprinting group propelled them to a first-place finish with 222.5 total points, as Western Carolina and Samford were the only two men's teams to earn over 200 points.  The Samford women were in a tight race with Elon (111) and Georgia Southern (112.5), as only 2.5 team points separated the three teams.  Western Carolina completed the sweep by winning the women's title with 197.5 points.
 
Samford earned five event titles today which, combined with their four titles yesterday, brings the weekend total to nine.  Ashley Cope won three of those nine titles, earning points in numerous other events to win the Women's Most Outstanding Athlete award.  Ben Davies won the same award on the men's side while Brandon Hazouri was named the Men's Freshman of the Year and Tiffin was named Men's Coach of the Year.
 
“I wish I could keep this senior class forever,” said Tiffin.  “They helped build this program to the level we are at and have been here from the very beginning with me.  For Ben [Davies] and Ashley [Cope] to win the Athlete of the Meet awards is very special.  They both deserved the award and earned every point they scored for us.  To lose a great leader like Ben next year will be tough.  Hopefully Ashley will be even more dominant when she comes back next season. 
 
In addition to her pole vault title yesterday, Cope added two more to her resume Sunday.  She started things off by winning her third-consecutive heptathlon title, beating the rest of the field by nearly 300 points with 4,673.  Christian McGuire added four more team points with a fifth-place finish (4,141).  Cope's third title of the weekend came in the 100-meter hurdles, where she cruised to a first-place finish in 14.15 with Julie McDonald adding four more team points in fifth place (14.68).
 
Samford's dominance in the decathlon continued, as sophomore Cody Russell can now call himself a conference champion after winning the event with a personal-best total of 5,891 points.  Samford has now won the event in three of the last four seasons.  Russell, Brandon Bassett (3rd, 5,680), Josh Davies (4th, 5,608), Bo Ackerson-Gilroy (6th, 5,183) and Brad Bostic (7th, 4,874) combined to bring Samford's point total to 26 points in the event.
 
Danielle Blanco won her first career SoCon title, placing first in the 400-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 1:00.96.  Leslie Graf (1:03.89) and Ashley Bridenbaugh (1:05.24) added more points in sixth and eighth, respectively.  After back-to-back years placing second, senior Chenelle Terry broke through to earn the gold in Sunday's high jump, winning with a height of 5-7.75 (1.72m).  This is her second career outdoor title, as she also won it during her freshman season.
 
Sidney Jordan made a pair of appearances on the podium Sunday, setting a school record in the discus with a third-place finish of 158-6 (48.31m) and placing second in the shot put with an outdoor-best mark of 49-6.25 (15.09m).  Last season's Freshman of the Year, Bob Elliot II, placed second in the men's high jump (6-10.25, 2.09m) with Tyler Kemp (4th, 6-7, 2.01m), Bassett (6th, 6-7, 2.01m) and Ackerson Gilroy (7th, 6-5, 1.96m) added more team points.
 
Lauren D'Alessio was less than three seconds shy of the event leader in the 1,500 meters, placing second with a personal-best time of 4:31.30.  Marie Demedicis improved on her fifth-place finish last season by taking second-place in Sunday's 800 meters, improving her personal best to 2:09.62.  Brandon Hazouri also finished second in the men's 800 meters, running a personal-best 1:51.30. 
 
Justin Emerson made three trips to the podium Sunday, once after placing second in the 100-meter dash (10.60), once after finishing third in the 200-meter dash (21.91) and lastly as a member of the third-place 400-meter relay team (41.74) along with Riley Hawkins, Zach Randall and Jonathon Bush.  Bush also earned a spot on the All-Conference team in the men's 400-meter dash, finishing third (48.79).
 
Adam Jones ran a personal-best 3:53.86 in Sunday's 1,500 meters to place third while Ben Davies continued his busy weekend by placing third in the men's 110-meter hurdle finals (14.85).
 
For a full list of Samford's competitors as well as All-Conference and All-Freshman winners, click the links at the top of the story.
 
Samford will come back home this weekend to host the Samford Open on Saturday, April 27 at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium just across the street from the main Samford campus.
 
“It has been a great season so far,” said Tiffin.  “I am looking forward to Regionals in a few weeks but before that, we hope that everyone can come out to our last home meet of the season.  It will have a lot of southeastern college teams involved and should be some great competition to watch.”
 
Field events at the Samford Open begin at 1 p.m. with the javelin and events on the track begin at 5 p.m. with the 400-meter relay.