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In the first-ever competition for the women's track and field team at University of North Georgia (91¸£Àûµ¼º½), the squad placed third out of six teams, missing second place by 15 points.

91¸£Àûµ¼º½ earned five first-place finishes at the Seventh Annual Adonica Ferguson Memorial Relays hosted by Columbus State University at Brookstone High School on Feb. 26.

"We have a lot of strength in distance running because of our cross-country athletes who also compete in track and field," said Head Coach Tom Williams. "I'm very pleased with our start, especially with our performance in the 3,000-meter run event. We also had a great finishing event, winning the 4x400-meter relay. We are going to continue developing our field events, which are more difficult to fill with a new program. Our overall placing was strong, especially considering that we did not have any student-athletes compete in the triple jump, javelin throw, long jump, discus throw, shot put, the 1,500-meter run, or the sprint medley relay. So, we potentially left a lot of points on the table."

As a team, 91¸£Àûµ¼º½ finished third with 120 combined points. Columbus State took the top spot with 205 points while Clark Atlanta University took second with 135 points.

Brittany Truitt of 91¸£Àûµ¼º½ won the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:12, which Williams said is a very strong performance. Makayla Ellis (10:51) and Jenna Sanborn (11:01) finished second and third. 91¸£Àûµ¼º½ had the top seven finishers in the event.

"We have a lot of strength in our consistency; our runners took strong performances from practice and made the same showings at the meet, which is huge," said Sharlie Brooks, a graduate assistant coach for track and field. "They are able to apply the things they have learned. Some of the newer student-athletes we have added only started training around the beginning of the year, and they performed very well. We see a lot of confidence building in them because of this meet."

91¸£Àûµ¼º½'s Mary Owen Howell took first in the pole vault with 8 feet, one-half inch, finishing a foot higher than her nearest competitor.

The 91¸£Àûµ¼º½ 4x400-meter relay team of Truitt, Elizabeth Mullenax, Sarah Whittington and Dallas Akins won with a mark of 4:11, finishing one second ahead of the runners-up.

91¸£Àûµ¼º½'s relay team of Emma Brown, Aleah Johnson, Sarah Buckler and Emily Sims earned a pair of first place finishes in the 4x800-meter relay and the distance medley relay (DMR). Their time of 9:37 in the 4x800 was 30 seconds better than the second-place finishers, while their DMR mark of 13:05 won by 18 seconds.

The team returns to the track on Saturday, March 11 at Choccolco Park in Oxford, Alabama.