MACOMB, Ill. – The Oral Roberts University women\'s track and field team used a 155 points outburst on the final day of competition to claim the 2006 Mid-Continent Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championship, Saturday afternoon at Western Illinois University. The Golden Eagles also swept all three major awards as head coach Joe Dial was named Coach of the Year, Aisha Mitchell earned Athlete of the Year billing, and Rachel Talbert received Newcomer of the Year honors.
The Golden Eagles entered Saturday in third place, 29 points behind event leader Western Illinois, but used 10 gold medal performances to vault themselves past the Westerwinds into first place. ORU finished the three-day event with 229 total tallies, 17 points ahead of second place Southern Utah (212 points). Western fell back to third with 180 points, while UMKC (98) and Valpo (74) rounded out the top five.
Mitchell was named the Athlete of the Year after winning a pair of individual gold medals to go along with two top finishes in relay events. She won the 400-meter dash after crossing the finish line in 55.67, while her time of 24.35 earned her a gold in the 200-meter dash. Mitchell also anchored both the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay champion teams, as the Golden Eagle women completely dominated the final day of action. The 4x400 squad won their race with a time of 3:48.72, more then three full seconds ahead of their nearest competition.
Talbert earned Newcomer of the Year honors after a strong showing throughout the championship\'s field events. Earlier in the week she took fifth in the hammer throw and third in the shot put, but Talbert saved her best performance for last as she won the javelin throw with a toss of 139\'01,\" almost 18 feet ahead of the second place finisher.
ORU\'s Diana Chelimo also turned in a solid performance on the final day of competition, claiming a pair of golds while finishing second in a third event. Chelimo started her day with a first place finish in the 1,500-meter run, before later beating out teammate Catherine Angwech by 1.48 seconds for medalist honors in the 800-meter run. Her second place performance came in the 5,000-meter run, where she finished behind teammate Faithy Kamangila. Kamangila crossed the finish line in 17:26.78 while Chelimo turned in a time of 17:32.87.
The Golden Eagles also received gold medal performances by both English Clark and Tanisha Guthrie during Saturday\'s competition. Clark won the triple jump with a leap of 40\'08.75\" while Guthrie took the 400-meter hurdles title with a time of 1:01.65
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