Track and Field Athletes Take Away Gallaudet Student-Athletes of the Year Honors

Darius Flowers and Leslye Kang were named Student-Athletes of the Year for the 2011-2012 Academic Year.

Track and Field Athletes Darius Flowers and Leslye Kang were named Student-Athletes of the Year for Gallaudet University for their school record-breaking performances.

The Gallaudet University Athletics’ department held its annual awards ceremony on May 1st.
Both Flowers and Kang are slated to participate in the upcoming World Deaf Athletics Championships (WDAC) in Toronto, Canada during July 14-21, representing USA Team.

USA Team athletes will have to fundraise to pay their way to the WDAC. If you would like to make a donation to financially support Darius, Leslye or any other USADTF athlete, please contact info@usadtf.org.

Link to the Gallaudet awards can be found – http://gallaudetathletics.com/news/2011-12/awardsceremony
Link to the WDAC website – http://2012wdac.org

Two Gallaudet Athletes with Record-breaking Performance, one Record-tying Time Ruled Ineligible

Gallaudet Athletes Kang is only 2.22m (7′ 4″) from Javelin World Record, Haynes breaks 23-year old Gallaudet record in 110m Hurdles, Ransom ties record, but wind-aided of 2.2 meters per seconds rule disallows record-tying performance in the books.

Gallaudet Javelin Thrower Sets School and American Record
Gallaudet University’s Javelin Thrower Leslye Kang broke her school and American record with a throw of 43.98m (144′ 3″) at the Messiah Invitational in Grantham, PA on April 14.

Kang broke her old record on March 24 when she threw a 39.37m (129′ 2″) in the javelin. The new record is a 4.61m (15′ 1″) improvement.

With this record-breaking throw, Kang is closing on the Deaf Women’s World Record for the Javelin Throw currently held by Japanese athlete Yu Sato with a distance of 46.20m (151′ 7″) set at the 2008 World Deaf Athletics Championships in Izmir, Turkey. Kang is only 2.22m (7′ 4″) away from owning the world record.

Gallaudet Male Hurdler Breaks School Record
In 1989, Eric Roberts set a Gallaudet University school record with a time of 15.74 in the 110m Hurdles. That record fell last weekend on April 14th at the Messiah Invitational when Michael Haynes had a time of 15.64.

Originally, Roberts ran a 15.5 Hand-Timed (HT) at Catholic University of America Cardinal Classic. It is Track & Field standard for .24 seconds to be added to any HT finishes before Fully Automatic Time (FAT a.k.a. “Electronically Time”) became common in Track & Field. The .24-second rule applies to any non-relay event under 400 meters that is HT.

This means while Haynes did not run faster than Roberts’ HT unofficial of 15.5, Haynes ran a .10 second faster than the official time of 15.74, placing his name in the school record books.

Gallaudet Runner Ties American Record, Ineligible due to Wind-aided Time
Gallaudet University Hurdler Mariah Ransom was on her way to having her name placed in the American Record books. In the same Messiah Invitational, Ransom tied the American Record with a time of 14.75 in the 100m Hurdles.

However, the record was denied eligible as the run was wind-aided by +2.2 meters per second. For a record to be eligible, the wind-aid meters per second must be under +2. Ransom’s best-qualified time of the weekend was a 15.32 in the preliminaries.

Ransom also ran a time of 1:07.80 in the 400m Hurdles, almost a second slower off the school record she owns with a time of 1:06.98.

Mariah Ransom breaks Gallaudet Records in third straight week

For the third straight week, Hurdler Mariah Ransom rewrote the Gallaudet University record books in the 100m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles.

Gallaudet University and 2009 Summer Deaflympics Hurdler Mariah Ransom set a new Gallaudet Record in two events for the third consecutive week at the Goucher Invitational held in Towson, MD.

On March 24, the old 100m Hurdles record was at 16.34. Ransom ran a 15.43, then broke it in the following week on March 31 with a time of 15.39.

At the Goucher Invitational prelims, Ransom appeared to break the school record with a time of 15.16 but it did not count due to the run being wind-aided by 3.1 meters per second (m/s). However, in the Finals, Ransom bettered that time, running a record-breaking time of 14.93 with a wind-aided of only 0.5 m/s.

For the 400m Hurdles, The old record was 1:12.24 which Ransom broke with a 1:07.27 run on March 24 then again on March 31 with a time of 1:06.98.

Ransom made a slight improvement on the 400m Hurdles with a time of 1:06.82, barely beating her time last week by .16 seconds.

Ransom is getting closer to the American record of 14.75 in the 100m Hurdles by the week. Her personal best in the 100m Hurdles is 14.81 which she set in 2010 during her senior year at Berkmar High in Georgia. That 14.81 is the current Girls Prep record.

Story link from Gallaudet – http://www.gallaudetathletics.com/sports/wtrack/2011-12/releases/recap_goucher

Vander Meulen sets Women’s Indoor Collegiate Record

Janna Vander Meulen of Western Oregon University sets record in the 60m Hurdles.

Western Oregon University senior athlete Janna Vander Meulen broke the Women’s Indoor Collegiate Record in the 60m Hurdles.

Vander Meulen ran a time of 9.06 at the GNAC Indoor Championships held at Nampa, Idaho on February 17, 2012.

Vander Meulen is also the holder of Women’s Outdoor Collegiate Record in the 100m Hurdles with time of 14.82 which she set last year at the John Knight Twilight Invitational in Monmouth, Oregon.

Erin LaFave sets seven Indoor American and Collegiate records

Indoor Long Distance runner Erin LaFave broke seven of her own records: three Women’s Indoor American and four Collegiate Records.

Rochester Institute of Technology and 2009 Summer Deaflympian runner Erin LaFave broke seven of her own records during the Indoor Track & Field season.

LaFave previously held the seven records, and broke all of them. So it also meant she set a new Personal Record time for her in those events.

The four Women’s Indoor Collegiate Records (ICR) LaFave set was the 1,000m, one mile, 3,000m and 5,000m run. The first three of records listed also was good enough to break the Women’s Indoor American Records (IAR).

LaFave already holds the IAR for the 5,000m with a time of 18:09.80 in 2008. Her ICR record was 18:53.84 which was faster than the 19:06.12 mark she set in 2009. The ICR record took place in the Liberty League Championships at Canton, New York on February 11, 2012.

In the 1000m, LaFave ran a 3:09.52 at the RIT Black/Orange Invitational in Rochester, New York on February 17, 2012, beating 3:12.44, which were both an ICR and IAR in 2009.

In the Mile run, LaFave finished with a time of 5:19.57 also at the Liberty League Championships, improving 22.71 seconds from her older ICR and IAR of 5:42.28 in 2009.

In the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Indoor Championships, LaFave ran a 10:25.91 in the 3,000m which was an improvement from the 10:49.43 mark she set in 2009.

Mariah Ransom Breaks Her Own Records

Once again, Mariah continues breaking her own Gallaudet University records in both events in the hurdles.

For the second straight week, Mariah Ransom re-wrote the Gallaudet University record books before the ink had a chance to dry in the 100m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles at the Jim Taylor Invitational in Selinsgrove, PA.

Ransom improved her personal time on both events and breaking the university record she set last week in the Dr. Harry GM Jopson Invite in Bridgewater, VA.

For the 100m Hurdles, Ransom ran a 15.39, which was a 0.04 second difference from last week at 15.43. She also ran .29 seconds faster in the 400m Hurdles, running a 1:06.98 which was better than her 1:07.27 mark last week.

The Women American record for 100m Hurdles is 14.75 held by Jennifer Body at the 1985 World Games for the Deaf in Los Angeles, California. The 400m Hurdles record of 1:03.65 is held by current USADTF athlete Amber Nash at the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Chinese Taipei.

Story link from Gallaudet – http://www.gallaudetathletics.com/sports/wtrack/2011-12/releases/recap_susquehanna