Coaches Go with Phillips as Landmark's Top Rookie

Goucher Scores 77 Points, Finishes in Fourth Place

SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Goucher, which never before had placed higher than fifth place at the Landmark Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships, came in fourth at the 2011-12 event, which was conducted today.

The Gophers scored a total of 77 points, finishing ahead of Juniata (63 points) and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (18). Moravian won the team title with 159 points, Susquehanna placed second with 125 and Catholic was third with 82, just five more than Goucher.

Freshman Destiny Phillips (Washington, D.C./Dunbar) was directly or at least partially responsible for 48 of the points the Gophers scored as she placed first in the 60-meter hurdles, second in the 60-meter dash, third in the 400-meter dash, fourth in the long jump and fifth in the 200-meter dash. In addition, she ran a leg on Goucher's entry in the 4 x 200-meter relay that took first place and the unit that was runner-up in the 4 x 400-meter relay.

For all of her accomplishments, Phillips was selected 2011-12 Rookie of the Year for the sport of women's indoor track and field in a vote by the conference's head coaches.

Phillips set a new school record with her winning time of 9.09 seconds in the 60 hurdles. She was beaten out by Moravian's Lisa Williamson for first place in the 60 dash by two 1-thousandths of a second, but her time of 8.23 seconds is also the fastest by a female in the history of the school's indoor track and field program.

Other school records which Phillips broke today: 1:02.03 in the 400 dash and 17' 3.25" in the long jump. She completed the 200 dash in 27.53 seconds.

Goucher's first-place entry in the 4 x 200 relay also included Jaclyn Kellon (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/St. Peter Chanel), Erin Reifsnyder (Austin, Texas/St. Andrews Episcopal) and Kelsey Turner (Philadelphia, Pa./Germantown Friends) and it posted a time of 1:48.73, which is another new school record. In the 4 x 400, Phillips was joined by Reifsnyder, Kellon and Kenzie Weber (Lake George, N.Y./Lake George), and this unit turned in a time of 4:15.26 for yet another school record.

The only other school record which was broken today was in the distance medley relay where the foursome of Katelynn Zidanic (York, Pa./Central York), Caitlin Biggers (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Lakeland), Kathryn Walker (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) and Gwendolyn Moiles (Waldoboro, Maine/Medomak Valley) was clocked at 13:21.08, good for second place.

Goucher's entry in the 4 x 800-meter relay finished in third place with its time of 10:34.17. It consisted of Walker, Zoe Malkin (Watchung, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional), Taylor Burr (Addison, Maine/Maranacook Community) and Rachel Ward (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville).

Reifsnyder finished in third place, two spots ahead of Phillips, in the 200 dash (:27.40) and was fourth in the 60 dash (:08.47). Katherine Currier (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaGuardia) and Zidanic placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run with Currier completing the event in 19:22.06 and Zidanic in 20:04.17.