June 7, 2007

Results

SACRAMENTO, Calif. --- Mateo Sossah highlighted action for the No. 9 UNC men and Brie Felnagle stood out for the Carolina women on the second day of competition for the North Carolina track and field teams at the NCAA Championships Thursday at Hornet Stadium on the campus of Sacramento State.

Sossah, a freshman from Mons-en-Baroeul, France, used a superb effort on the second day of the men's decathlon to finish ninth in the event with a career-best score of 7,378 points, improving 13 positions from his 22nd-place showing after day one. Sossah set the tone for an incredible day by winning his heat of the 110-meter hurdles to start things off on Thursday, compiling 857 points with a 14.94 time that turned out to be his best score of the competition. Riding that momentum, Sossah followed up with a tie for second place in his flight of the discus and another strong showing in his flight of the pole vault, where he finished third. The impressive string of performances continued with another third place showing in his flight of the javelin, and he capped the day with a second-place finish in his section of the 1,500 meters, narrowly missing scoring points for the Tar Heels by just 16 points.

Felnagle, meanwhile, had an outstanding showing of her own in advancing to the finals of the women's 1,500 meters on Saturday. The Tacoma, Wash., sophomore turned in a 4:19.86 effort to win the first of two preliminary heats Thursday, giving her the second seed in the final. Florida State's Susan Kuijken clocked a 4:15.68 to win Heat 2 and post the top preliminary time.

Georgia Kloss was also in action for the UNC women, running a 2:07.18 to finish seventh in her semifinal heat of the women's 800 meters, putting her in 13th position overall. Her time failed to qualify her for one of the eight spots in the event finals.

Kelly Fazekas also competed Thursday for the Tar Heel women but did not manage to advance out of the preliminaries of the shot put. Fazekas posted a 50-1 1/4 (15.27 meters) mark on her second attempt in finishing in 17th position overall.

For the UNC men, Reggie Berry missed out on one of the 16 spots in the men's 400-meter hurdles final, finishing fourth in his preliminary heat with the 24th-best time of the day, a 52.65 clocking.

Friday promises to be a big day for the Tar Heels as Nick Owens will start things off for UNC in the men's hammer throw final at 4:15 p.m. ET and then two Tar Heels, Justin Ryncavage and Adam Montague, will compete in the javelin finals, scheduled for 10:15 ET.