May 27, 2006

Results

GREENSBORO, N.C. --- Senior Laura Gerraughty and Vikas Gowda each picked up individual event wins to lead the University of North Carolina track and field teams on day one of the NCAA East Regional Friday at Belk Track on the campus of North Carolina A&T.

Gerraughty dominated the field in the women's shot put with a winning throw of 60 feet, 5 3/4 inches (18.43 meters). The mark was more than seven feet better than runner-up Beverly Burnett of Appalachian State and just shy of her own meet record set in 2004.

Gowda was just as impressive in the men's discus, as his winning effort of 201-1 (61.29m) bested the field by 11 feet. It was also a meet record, topping the 2005 mark of Florida State's Garrett Johnson, who finished third Friday.

Two other Tar Heels punched tickets to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., with top-five performances. Junior Nick Owens delivered a mark of 220-8 (67.26m) to finish third in the men's hammer throw, while senior Sheena Gordon cleared 5-11 1/4 (1.81m) to take third in the women's high jump. Owens also competed in the discus, taking seventh with a mark of 175-9 (53.56m).

A pair of Carolina women advanced to Saturday finals with solid preliminary efforts. Sophomore Megan Kaltenbach won her heat of the women's 1,500 meters in a time of 4:26.53 to advance to the 12-woman final. Junior Georgia Kloss was second in her heat of the 800 meters in 2:07.42, advancing to the eight-woman final.

Through five scored events, both UNC squads currently sit in second place. The women have 16 points and trail first-place Georgia (29.5), while the men have 18 points and trail first-place Virginia Tech (33).