FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.; March 10, 2006- Penn State??s Jen Leatherman (Yellville, Ark.) finished third in the weight throw Friday afternoon to grab All-America honors in the first of two events on the weekend at the NCAA Women??s Track and Field Championships. Sophomore Shana Cox (Westbury, N.Y.) also advanced to the finals of the 400-meter dash. NCAA action in Fayetteville, Ark., concludes Saturday.
For Leatherman, the All-America nod was the third of her career. The Big Ten??s 2006 Athlete of the Year, she threw a 21.49 to earn honors. Georgia??s Jenny Dahlgren won the weight-throw with a throw of 24.04 meters. Leatherman had two top 10 finishes last year, including a ninth-place finish in the shot put, which she will compete in Saturday. The Arkansas-native has won back-to-back Big Ten championships in the shotput and weight-throw.
After winning her heat with a 52.73, Cox had the fifth-best time in the preliminaries and runs again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Cox finished 11th last year and is a two-time All-American. Tennessee??s Patricia Hall led the 400-meter dash field in the preliminaries with a 52.10.
Penn State??s NCAA action on Saturday, March 11, will feature Leatherman in the shotput starting at 4:30 p.m. CT. In addition to running the 400-meter dash, Cox will join freshman Aleesha Barber (Decatur, Ga.), sophomore Dominique Blake (Bronx, N.Y.) and junior Briene Simmons (Decatur, Ga.) in the 4x400-meter relay Saturday with the final set for 8:20 p.m. Senior Sara Shoaff (Harrisburg, Pa.) is traveling with the team as an alternate. Barber, Blake, Cox and Simmons all earned first team All-Big Ten after setting a Camp Randall record with a 3:41.98 at the conference championships and qualified with a 3:34.04 time last weekend at Iowa State, qualifying them ninth.