Men's Track & Field 1/12/2008 5:00:00 AM MEAC Media Relations

Wildcats Perform Well with Top Finishes at Joe Hilton Tar Heel Invitational

Bethune-Cookman men's and women's track and field teams opened their 2008 season a month ago, but the full swing opened up on Saturday as they traveled to the Joe Hilton Tar Heel Invitational in the Eddie Smith Field House at Chapel Hill, N.C. The newest Wildcats performed well in their first taste of collegiate competition.

The men were led by the first place finish of Ronnie Ashe with a personal-best time of 7.93 in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles. That was followed up by a first place finish in the finals with a time of 7.96 seconds.

The men’s 4x400 meter relay team collected a time of 3:20.33 as they were anchored by sophomore Corey Wright. The team also consisted of Eric Cray, Harold Rose, Jr. and Joel Redhead. The time was good enough for a third place finish overall behind teams from St. Augustine’s and the independent factor of the GW Express.

Rose also finished third in the long jump with a distance of 7.09m (23-03.25), while teammate and freshman Rahdel Savage posted a distance of 14.66m (48-01.25) in the triple jump. Savage is expected to be a future All-America talent while Rose is working towards back-to-back regional qualifications under Coach Ellenwood.

In the women’s side of things, the events started off with redshirt freshman transfer Christina Roundtree collecting a top five finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.76 seconds. That was a personal-best mark for the Midland, Tex. Native who transferred to B-CU from Midland Community College.

Later on in the day, sophomore Tavia Burke represented well for the ?Cats with a second-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles. Her time of 8.74 seconds was a season-best at B-CU in indoor competition. She had collected a time of 8.86 seconds in the preliminaries and a fifth place showing before coming back strong in the finals.

The upset of the day might have been in the long jump as junior college transfer Rockel Mitchell took home the second first place showing of the day for the Wildcats with a jump of 5.85m (19-02.50) in the long jump. That was a personal-best performance from the junior from St. Andrews, Grenada.

Ron Danielle Williams picked up a third place mark in the shot put as she tossed a distance of 11.90m (39-00.50) for the day. The 4x400 meter relay team also finished third behind North Carolina and Western Carolina, respectively. The team for the ?Cats consisted of Dianne Munroe, Deandrea Laing, Mitchell and Alfreepha Stubbs. The team collected a time of 3:52.21 overall.