The NCAA News - News and Features

March 17, 1997

Abilene Christian also grabs team title in II women's race

The race for the team title at the 1997 Division II Women's Indoor Track Championships was supposed to be a battle between four-time defending champion Abilene Christian and St. Augustine's.

The teams did finish Nos. 1 and 2, but the race never materialized.

Chalking up eight top-three individual finishes, including two first-place showings, Abilene Christian scored 76 points to win its fifth consecutive championship and eighth in the last nine years March 7-8 at the RCA Dome.

The Wildcats' point total is the fourth highest in the championships' 12-year history and was 15 better than runner-up St. Augustine's, which also placed second in 1996.

The Wildcats' men's team also won in Indianapolis, marking the second consecutive year and fifth time overall that Abilene Christian has swept the men's and women's crowns.

Lincoln (Missouri), Lewis and Cal St. Los Angeles rounded out the women's top five with 30, 20 and 19 points, respectively.

"Everybody did just great," Abilene Christian coach Wes Kittley said. "We lost six seniors, including our top three sprinters. To be able to come back...we did it with a little depth in every event. Everybody was team-oriented. With us that's really big."

Delloreen Ennis and Vivian Ruijters each posted two top-three finishes, including first-place showings, to pace the Wildcats. Ennis overcame a slight knee injury to successfully defend her 55-meter hurdles crown, cruising to victory in 7.74 seconds. She also finished third in the 55-meter dash.

"I was a little nervous because (of the) knee problem, but I got a pretty good start and felt pretty good the rest of the race," Ennis said. "My coach talked to me to really boost me up, so I felt pretty confident despite the knee problem."

Ruijters earned her first individual-event crown by winning the mile run. Ruijters followed that performance with a runner-up showing in the 5,000-meter run.

Tracey Gust (high jump), Katina Sommers (400-meter dash) and Renna Toniste (triple jump) each recorded runner-up finishes to contribute 24 points to the Wildcats' total.

Lorraine Graham of Lincoln turned in a memorable performance as well, shattering the 400-meter dash record and anchoring the squad's 1,600-meter relay team to a championships-record-breaking time. Graham eclipsed the 400 dash mark by 11/2 seconds, posting a time of 52.22.

Graham nearly bettered that performance in the relay, running a 52.3-second anchor to help Lincoln (also featuring Yvonne Andrews, 55-meter dash champion Bev Grant and Shelly Berth) shave nearly four seconds off the championships event record.

Stacey Mills of Adams State and Becky Ball of Ashland also rewrote the records book, setting standards in the 800-meter run and 20-pound weight throw. Ball, who shattered her own weight-throw mark, joined Ennis, Graham, Petra Juraskova of Cal State Los Angeles (shot put) and Ermalinda Shehu of Western State (triple jump) in successfully defending individual titles.