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Cousineau, Johnson Record Individual Wins as #9 Women's T&F Finishes Fourth at WHAC Indoors

Posted: Feb 21, 2015

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Rebecca Cousineau and Marissa Johnson were individual winners for the ninth-ranked Siena Heights women's indoor track and field team as a shorthanded Saints squad placed fourth at the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday.

Cousineau won the weight throw with an NAIA automatic-qualifying toss of 56 feet, 3 3/4 inches (17.16 meters) -- an 11 1/4-inch improvement over her previous auto.

Johnson and teammate Phoenix Duncan cleared at an auto height of 5-8 1/2 in the high jump, but Johnson claimed the victory via tiebreaker. Johnson improved on her previous auto by two inches while Duncan improved her height by a half-inch.

The Saints' 4x800 relay team was also a winner. Team members Arika Knannlein, Brianna Pekel, Ashley Russo and Mariah Ridal combined for a time of 9:22.09.

In the other relay, SHU's 4x400 squad placed fourth and improve on its previous auto time by 2.75 seconds. The foursome of Hannah Shellenbarger, Jalesia Johnson, Knannlein and Pekel finished in 3:59.09.

Individual auto performances were also recorded by Sheila McKinley, Tasha McKinley, Stephanie Marquardt and Pekel, although none of those four improved on their previous-best performances.

Both McKinley sisters cleared 12-0 3/4 (3.68m) in the pole vault, but Sheila took second place over third-place Tasha based on a tiebreaker. Carlye Voorhorst added a provisional height in the vault, clearing 11-3 (3.43m). Due to a tiebreaker, she dropped from a tie for fifth into seventh.

Marquardt finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.95 seconds after seeding fourth with a time of 8.90 during preliminaries.

Pekel took third in the 600 with a 1:37.55. Shellenbarger was fourth in the event with a time of 1:40.59.

Knannlein ran a provisional 2:19.32, but missed her previous-fastest time while taking runner-up in the 800. Elsewhere on the track, Russo finished sixth in the 1,000 in 3:10.26.

In the field, Haley Hudson had a provisional 42-1 1/4 (12.83m) to take third in the shot put, but missed her top distance. Alaya Hayes finished sixth in 40-3 1/2 (12.28m).

Rounding out the scoring for SHU, Charlena Williams was fifth in 33-6 3/4 (10.23m) and Jalesia Johnson took sixth in 32-8 1/2 (9.97m).

In team scoring, SHU scored 87 points, finishing behind team champ Indiana Tech (202.5), Cornerstone (142.5) and Aquinas (94), while placing ahead of Davenport (24) and Concordia (8).