May 15, 2003
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State track and field capped off a successful beginning to the 2003 Mountain West Conference championships, sweeping the top two spots Thursday in the two-day heptathlon. Aztec senior Leslie Miller (Humble, Texas) won the event for the second consecutive season (5,602 pts.), while teammate Shanon Meyer (Hesperia, Calif.) placed second (5,481) to put SDSU in first in the team competition with 21 points.
"Everyone really came together today despite the windy conditions and stepped up when we needed them to," SDSU assistant Jennifer Nanista said. "Both Leslie and Shanon posted huge pr's (personal records) overall and in the individual events during both days of the competition."
Miller won two of the day's final three events, posting a career best throw in the javelin of 144-0 and running the 800 meters in 2:19.09. Her 5,602 points automatically qualifies her for her second consecutive NCAA championships, slated for Sacramento, Calif., June 11-14. Miller's point total is also a career best, beating her previous mark of 5,472, and ranks second nationally. An Aztec has now won the heptathlon at the MWC meet in each of the last three seasons with All-American Aja Frary doing so in 2001.
Meyer, meanwhile, just missed the automatic NCAA cut by 19 points, jumping from third to second place in the final day of competition with 5,481 points. Meyer's point total is a career best by almost 300 points, her second NCAA provisional qualifying total of the season, fourth-best in school history and ranks fifth nationally so far in 2003. Meyer logged two runner-up finishes in both the javelin (career best - 139-03) and 800 meters (2:20.81) and placed third in the long jump (18-10.50).
While Miller and Meyer combined for 18 of the team's points on the day, sophomore Alisha Lasswell (Kilbride, Ont.) and Nicole Carmier (Elk Grove, Calif.), both competing in their first heptathlon competition, placed seventh and eighth respectively to pick up the other three points for the Aztecs.
SDSU owns a big lead in the team competition with the 21 points, followed by BYU (6 pts.), New Mexico (5 pts.), Utah (4 pts.) and Colorado State (3 pts.).
The Mountain West Conference championships continue Friday at 10 a.m. MDT with the trials and finals in the hammer, pole vault, long jump and discus. The track events will be mostly qualifying heats with the exception of the finals in the steeplechase and 10,000 meters.