April 21, 2008

New Brunswick, NJ (UWIRE) -- The women's track and field team took part in the Larry Ellis Invitational and showed a good deal of success, despite not sending a full squad.

The Scarlet Knights had a good weekend, sending a limited amount of athletes to the meet and still coming out with five victories.

Senior Sylvia Galarza led the way for the Knights, as she won three events and put up Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and Big East Championship qualifying marks in two of the events. Galarza won the discus with a throw of 153'4" and the shot put, throwing 45'4 1/4." The two throws were good enough to qualify her for the ECAC and Big East Championships. Galarza also won the javelin, which may have been the most surprising of any of her wins.

The senior is new to the event and only recently picked it up. Because the Millville, N.J. native competes in all four outdoor throwing events, she has not had a lot of time to practice the javelin. Yet with her throw of 144'4", Galarza not only won the event but also qualified for the NCAA Regionals.

Another victory for RU came in the long jump.

Jamie Walker won the long jump in 18' 9 3/4", which was good enough to qualify her for the Big East Championships. It was a personal best for the freshman.

Junior Bryanna Johnson was the third Knight to capture an event. She won the high hurdles in 14.14 seconds and capped a comeback from a hamstring injury with the victory.

"I'm so happy to see Bryanna finally have a victory after she struggled with injuries the first three years and now to see it materialize," Rutgers head coach James Robinson said.

Johnson missed parts of her freshman and sophomore seasons with a hamstring injury that left her injury-riddled until finally getting healthy this year. Her time in the high hurdles left her two-tenths of a second short from qualifying for the NCAA Regionals.

(C) 2008 Daily Targum via UWIRE