TRACK AND FIELD

Women finish tied for 14th at NCAA championships

The Auburn women’s track and field team concluded the final day of competition at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, finishing tied for 14th place with 18 points. The highlight of the final day for the Tigers was the women’s 4x400 meter relay team that shattered the school record finishing second in 3:26.46, just .15 seconds shy of first-place Texas A&M.

Auburn lead leg CeCe Williams in lane seven got the Tigers out to a strong start, running a 53.1 split before handing the baton to senior Joanna Atkins. Atkins gave Auburn the lead out of turn one and extended the lead through turn two, running her 400 in 50.5.

Third runner Cache Amrbrister posted a 52.1, and extended Auburn’s lead to nearly 20 meters in the back stretch of her 400 before handing off to anchor Kai Selvon. Despite posting a personal-record split, NCAA 400-meter champion, Jessica Beard of Texas A&M, ran a blazing 49.1 split, catching Selvon with a 100 meters left and held off Selvon in a sprint to the finish. Beard’s split was the fastest 400 split in NCAA history.

“We ran the best race we could run,” Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said. “Unfortunately, Beard from Texas A&M ran the fastest split in NCAA history. When you run a race like our women did, you can’t argue. Everyone gave everything they had and that’s all you can ask for at this level.”

Earlier in the day, Auburn junior Nivea Smith finished seventh in the women’s 200 meters in 22.94.

On the men’s side, junior Ben Cheruiyot was 21st in the 5,000, completing the race in 14:27.39. Cheruiyot got out strong early, staying with the lead pack through the first 1,500 meters running in sixth place, however, slowly began to drop back over the final five laps.

The AU men, which brought five male athletes, including four freshmen, did not score any team points during the four day meet.

Texas A&M swept the team competitions. The A&M won the women’s team title with 49 points followed by Oregon, LSU and Oklahoma. The Aggie men barely won, outlasting Florida State and Florida by one point and two points, respectively.

MEN’S GOLF

Team USA, Barber win Palmer Cup

Rising Auburn junior Blayne Barber bounced back again from a mid-round deficit at the 2011 Palmer Cup, finishing all square with Texas A&M’s Ignacio Elvira, as Team USA defeated Team Europe, 13-11, at the Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Conn.

Barber trailed Elvira for the bulk of the round until back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12 gave the Lake City, Fla., native his first lead of the day. Elvira managed to fight back to square over the remaining holes, splitting the point with Auburn’s First Team All-SEC Selection.

Barber is the first Auburn golfer to earn a place in the annual Ryder Cup-style competition.