The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 15, 1999

Women's team runs up record total in victory

Abilene Christian established new NCAA women's indoor track highs for all divisions in points and margin of victory in the process of winning its seventh straight Division II title March 5-6 in Indianapolis.

Wildcats competitors won five events and earned six second places as Abilene Christian totaled 119 points.

The previous high in an NCAA women's indoor track championships was 77 points by St. Augustine's in the inaugural Division II meet in 1985.

Abilene Christian, which won the championship for the 11th time in the last 12 years, compiled more points than the second- through fourth-place teams combined.

St. Augustine's was this year's runner-up with 44 points for its third second-place finish in the last four years.

Abilene Christian's 75-point victory far surpassed its previous highest margin of 44 points, set in 1991.

"I knew we had a really strong team and I thought we'd win, but it wasn't expected that we would do this well," Abilene Christian coach Wes Kittley said. "We really dominated up top. You dream that it can happen like this and today it did."

Delloreen Ennis-London of Abilene Christian became the first Division II woman to win an event four times indoors, as she captured the 55-meter hurdles in a meet record 7.62 seconds.

The Wildcats dominated the event as Suzanee Dickenson and Shawntel Newhouse finished second and third, respectively.

Ennis-London had no time to rest after hurdling, returning to the track less than five minutes later to finish second in the 55-meter dash in 6.95 seconds.

Humboldt State's Trinity Davis won the race, edging Ennis-London by one-hundredth of a second.

"I'm glad that I broke the record, but there is always room for improvement," Ennis-London said, adding that the quick turnaround may have deprived her of being a double winner. "There is hardly enough time in between."

Abilene Christian also swept the top three spots in the triple jump, with Renna Toniste winning with a leap of 40 feet, 9 inches. She was followed by runner-up Hillerie Shelton and third-place finisher Dawnyel Newhouse.

Another meet record was set by Lewis freshman Lana Jekabsone, whose winning time of 2:06.00 in the 800-meter run lowered the 1997 mark of Adams State's Stacey Mill by 1.08 seconds.

Adriane Sims of St. Augustine's soared to a meet record in the high jump when she cleared 6 feet, 11/2 inches.

The previous record of 6 feet, set by Mazel Thomas of Abilene Christian, had stood since 1989.