Freberg wins shot-put event; Arkansas leads

The dominance the Florida women's track and field team showed in the shot put during the regular season continued in the SEC Championships.

The UF throwers placed first, third, fourth and fifth to combine for all of the Gators' 25 points scored Saturday at the O'Connell Center during the second day of competition.

Karen Freberg, a transfer from Southern Methodist, won the shot put title for the fourth consecutive meet.

"Everyone pushed each other and it motivated me to do well," said Freberg, who threw 54-feet, 6¶ feet on her second attempt. "I think everyone did an awesome job. We basically made a statement saying we are the best throws program overall."

All of the UF throwers who scored threw further than 51 feet to lead the Gators to third place going into the last day.

"They did exactly what we thought they would do," UF women's coach Tom Jones said. "That's 25 points, which is what we expected."

South Carolina prevented the Gators from sweeping the top five spots, as Nicole Kendrick was second with her throw of 53-5. India Odum was sixth (50-9¶) as the Gamecocks totaled 11 points in the shot put.

"We're about where I thought we would be, but so is everyone else," USC coach Curtis Frye said.

Florida goes into the final day tied for third with Georgia. Arkansas, led by a dominating performance in the 3,000 meters, has a one-point lead over South Carolina (35-34).

Christin Wurth, who won the SEC cross country title this fall, won the 3,000 with a time of 9:23.36 to lead the Razorbacks' 19 points scored in the race. Penny Splichal and Londa Bevins were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Top-ranked LSU is tied with Mississippi for last with one point, but the Tigers have 12 advancing times from the preliminaries to today's finals. They have the top qualifier in the 200 (Muna Lee) and 800 (Marian Burnett) and four runners in the 55-meter hurdles.

"We feel pretty good about things right now as far as qualifying and advancing," LSU coach Pat Henry said.

Florida qualified four runners from Saturday's preliminaries to today's final in the 55 hurdles, 400 and 800.

"We're still in it," Jones said. "We have to have a good day tomorrow. Our kids have to come out with some intensity."

Junior Andrea Bliss had the preliminaries' fastest time in 55 hurdles, finishing with a personal-best time of 7.66 seconds.

"I was expecting a great performance from myself today," Bliss said. "I want to go 7.50 (in the final)."

Faith Rein and Novlene Williams ran the fourth and fifth-best times, respectively, in the 400 preliminaries. Rein's time of 54.02 won her heat and puts in the faster heat in today's final. Williams, who had a 54.42 prelim time, will be in today's slower heat.

"We're real pleased with our quarter-milers," Jones said. "They ran very well."

Kristina Bratton qualified for the 800 with a time of 2:11.74, eighth in the preliminaries.

You can reach Doris Yon by calling 374-5052 or by e-mail at yond@gvillesun.com