Matt Parker (Rome, N.Y.). The reigning Big South champion...

Liberty track & field athletes garnered a pair of fourth-place finishes Sunday afternoon, on the closing day of the IC4A and ECAC Indoor Track & Field Championships in Boston. Daniel Newell ended up fourth in the IC4A heptathlon, while Jaime Watson placed fourth in the ECAC 800-meter final.


Head coach Brant Tolsma’s men’s squad scored all 16.5 of its points on Sunday at the Boston University Pavilion, enabling the Flames to place 18th out of 50 teams which scored at least one point at the IC4A meet. Albany captured the team championship, as the Great Danes’ 72.5 points left them nine points ahead of UConn.

Meanwhile, the Lady Flames totaled 9.5 points for 32nd place, while competing at the ECAC meet, across town at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center. Duke’s 56 points gave the Blue Devils first place in the final ECAC team standings, while Boston College took second with 40 tallies.

IC4A Day Two Recap
Newell (R-Sr., Roanoke, Va.) totaled 5,043 points to finish fourth among a tightly-packed lead group of heptathlon competitors. The first four finishers, led by event champion Edwin Schuck of Lehigh, were separated by only 52 points in the final standings. Newell’s fourth-place effort was a one-spot improvement from his fifth-place finish in the 2008 IC4A heptathlon.

Anthony Bryant (R-Fr., Charlottesville, Va.) competed in a pair of field events Sunday afternoon, and scored points for the Flames in both disciplines. One of seven high jumpers to top out at 6-10.25, Bryant was awarded fifth place on misses. The Commonwealth native then triple jumped 48-11 on his opening attempt, a distance which held up for the seventh spot.

Joining Bryant in the high jump competition was senior Matt Parker (Rome, N.Y.). The reigning Big South champion also cleared the bar at 6-10.25, ending up in a tie for sixth place with Rutgers’ Adam Bergo. It was the third straight year Parker has placed in the high jump’s top eight.

Clarence Powell (So., Marianna, Fla.) finished just one spot ahead of Bryant in the triple jump, stretching the measuring tape out to 49-4.25 for sixth place. Powell finished his indoor season with a trio of triple jump efforts of 15 meters or longer.

ECAC Day Two Recap
Watson (Sr., Ravenna, Mich.), the only Lady Flame to compete Sunday at the ECAC Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, posted her best 800-meter run time this season, 2:10.34. The clocking was also faster than the time Watson used to capture the 2008 ECAC 800-meter championship, but the senior had to settle for fourth place this time around.

Sam Chelanga (R-So., Nairobi, Kenya) will head to College Station, Texas this Friday and Saturday, as he has automatically qualified to run the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. Chelanga also owns a provisional qualifier in the 3,000, as do Bryant in the high jump and Newell in the heptathlon. They will all learn their fate Monday evening, when the official list of qualifiers for the meet is announced.

Many other Liberty men’s and women’s track & field athletes will depart for Conway, S.C., to begin the 2009 outdoor season at the Coastal Carolina Invitational. The two-day meet begins Friday at 11 a.m. Source