LOUISVILLE --Danielle Brown broke her own school record and took second place in the 400 meter hurdles and the 4x400 meter relay team took seventh place to finish off the NCAA Mideast Regional Championship on Saturday evening.
Brown will compete at the NCAA National Championships on June 10, but the relay team must wait until Tuesday to see if their time was low enough to qualify them.
Brown was neck-and-neck with Illinois' Deserea Brown during the final stretch but Danielle was forced to use her opposite leg for the final three hurdles, causing her to lose momentum. It allowed Deserea to take a slight lead and edge out Danielle by .12 seconds. She finished with a time of 57.12, breaking her own school record that she set at the 2008 NCAA Mideast Regional Championship finals, where she also finished in second place.
"She ran a really good race," said head coach Kelly Lycan. "The wind was in their faces during the home stretch and it got her off her stride, but we are hoping to get her time down under 57 seconds. She missed some time during the middle of the season due to a leg injury, but she is definitely at the top of her game now and we will look to have a good few weeks of practice."
The 4x400 team of Brown, Jennifer Sabra, Leya Munwam and Victoria Chatman were a part of the fastest heat of the day, finishing seventh in the heat with a time of 3:36.20 and seventh overal. The team ran its fastest time of the season by nearly two seconds, eclipsing its previous season best set at the Searay Relays in April.
Brown started off the race for WMU with a blazing split of 52.9 seconds and had the Broncos in good position before handing it off to Chatman. Chatman, who usually runs the anchor, was able to keep some distance for WMU and keep them with the pack. Munwam ran the third leg but there was a bobble in the exchange between her and Sabra before the anchor leg. Sabra got stuck in a pack but was able to keep the Broncos competitive to finish seventh.
Overall, Western Michigan scored 10 points to finish tied for 23rd with Louisiana-Monroe.
Courtesy: Zolton Cohen
