DAY 2 RESULTS

RADFORD, Va. – Senior Nikki Roseberry earned a bronze medal finish and all-conference honors in the high jump and Phillip Hovatter set a new school record with 5,990 points in the decathlon to conclude the second day at the Big South Championships on Friday.

Hovatter set a new personal-best in six out of 10 events and tied his pole vault PR en route to earning the new record.  He has set both multi's school records at conference.  Roseberry cleared the bar at 1.65m/5'5” to earn her first outdoor conference distinction.

“We had a lot of good things happen today, especially Nikki and Phillip's achievements,” said head coach Brent Chumbley.  “We didn't do as well as we thought in the field events, but on the track, everybody we expected to qualify did.  Drew [Hall] ran a great race to get to the finals and in hurdles we did well with the second and third best times of the day.  Tomorrow is the day with most of the scoring so we are looking forward to a promising day.”

Track conditions were far from ideal as a steady rain fell on the track the majority of the day, reducing times.

Freshmen Amber Church and Courtni Pannell made it to the finals tomorrow by way of their qualifying times.  Church took first in her heat, running to a 14.46 finish while Pannell advanced by way of a 14.67.

In the 110m hurdles, freshman Chris Dobbins took top honors in the prelims with a 14.70.

Brett Olinger grabbed the top qualifying time (54.41) in the 400m hurdles.  In his third hurdles event ever, David Green turned in a solid race, running a personal-best 56.15.

Kaise White (48.79) and Raschad Kelso (48.63) each placed second in their respective heats to move forward in the finals.  Kelso returned in the 200m to post the second fastest time in prelims at 21.70.

Britney Whittaker raced to the fastest time in the 800m prelims (2:17.49).  She will look to make it two straight year bringing home the title when she competes tomorrow in the finals.

Here are other notable event-by-event breakdowns of today's competition:
Women's 100m
Lakei Crews glided into the finals with a 12.50 mark.

Women's 400m
Diane Wesh placed second in her heat to advance to the finals with a time of 57.65.

Men's 800m
In a heat with VMI's three-time defending champion Felix Kitur, Drew Hall held his own and with a late surge qualified for finals tomorrow with a time of 1:57.57.

Men's 1500m
Thomas Keefe qualified for tomorrow's finale with a time of 4:03.84.

Men's 3000m Steeplechase
Sam Keltner recorded a new persona-best at 10:21.10.

Men's Shot Put
Junior Justin Smith placed fifth with a toss of 15.23m/49'11.75”.  Garrett Knudson recorded a 14.22m/46'8” on his very first throw to finish eighth.