Arizona track teams sweep state rivals

By Jason A. Vrtis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 12, 1996

The Arizona men's and women's track teams routed state rivals Arizona State and Northern Arizona last Saturday at an indoor triangular meet in Flagstaff.

The Arizona men easily won 82-43 over NAU and 71-55 over Arizona State. On the women's side, the Wildcats ran to a 65-44 victory over the Lumberjacks and a 88-58 decision over the Sun Devils.

Arizona had another productive day in terms of NCAA indoor qualifying as two Wildcats earned automatic qualifying marks and four other provisional qualifying marks were posted.

"I was very impressed with our team's competitiveness as well as our outstanding individual performances," UA head coach Dave Murray said.

Senior Michelle Johnson, an NCAA All-American a year ago, won the 55-meter high hurdles in 7.73 seconds, automatically qualifying her for this year's NCAA championships. Johnson also anchored Arizona's winning 4X400-meter relay and finished second in the 400m dash in 56.02.

Senior Veronica Burton also won twice, in both the long jump with a mark of 19 feet, 11 inches and the 55m dash with a time of 7.02. Burton's long jump was a provisional NCAA mark.

Freshman Amy Skieresz won the mile in 5 minutes, 8.2 seconds and ran a 5:04 mile on Arizona's victorious distance-medley team.

For the men, sophomore Bob Keino qualified provisionally for the NCAAs, winning the mile in 4:11.2. He also won the 3,000m run in 8:45.1.

Sophomore Dominic Johnson established an Arizona indoor school record in the pole vault with his mark of 16-11 3/4. Johnson's winning mark was the highest vault in Arizona history.

Junior Chima Ugwu automatically qualified for the NCAAs, leading the UA men to a 1-2-3 sweep in the shot put with his winning mark of 61-4. Sophomore Tyson Lingenfelter finished second with a toss of 57-9 3/4, and senior Gabriel Torre finished third with his throw of 56-8.

Freshman Tapio Kolunsarka won the 35-pound weight throw while senior Aaron Corcorran finished second. Junior Luther Kopf won the men's 800m in 1:54.9 and anchored Arizona's 4X400m relay to a victory.

Freshman A.J. Cornelius won the men's triple jump with a distance of 48-11 on his final attempt.

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