March 9, 2002

UNC's women's indoor track team totaled 25 points to finish in a fifth-place tie with Rice and Stanford at the 2002 NCAA Championships held in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend. The Tar Heel men also had an impressive showing, totaling 13 points to tie Northern Iowa for 12th place. LSU won the women's division with 57 points, while Tennessee tallied 62.5 points to win the men's side.

The finish for the women was the highest ever indoors for Carolina, and the men's finish was the third-highest ever indoors.

Leading the way for the women Saturday was sophomore Shalane Flanagan who finished third in the mile at 4:39.11 and sixth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:16.30. Freshman Carol Henry finished one spot behind Flanagan in the 3000 at 9:16.81, and freshman Erin Donohue joined Flanagn in the mile, placing 10th with a time of 4:46.30.

Sophomore Alice Schmidt took third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:06.43, and Shannon Burns jumped 41-0 1/4 in the triple jump to take 12th.

For the men on Saturday, Senior Sal Gigante had a career-best throe of 71-8 in the weight throw to take fourth.

In Friday's action, UNC's distance medley relay team of Donohue, Anissa Gainey, Schmidt and Flanagan set a new American record with a time of 10:59.76. The team finished second to UCLA who ran 10:58.19 but is credited with the American record since all four team members are from the United States. UCLA, who has a DMR team member from Sweden, set a new NCAA record with their time.

Also on Friday, Carolina's Adam Shunk had a second-place finish in the high jump. Shunk cleared 7-3 3/4 to finish behind Princeton's Tora Harris who cleared 7-5.