DAY ONE RESULTS (PDF) | DAY ONE RESULTS (HTML) | DAY TWO HEAT SHEETS (PDF)

STATESBORO, Ga. – After the opening day of competition at the 2013 Southern Conference Track and Field Championships, the Samford men's team is in the lead with 72 points while the women are in fourth with 29 points.
 
Ashley Cope had a very busy Saturday, competing in eight events and earning 16 team points, including a championship performance in the pole vault.  The junior from Juliette, Ga., won Saturday's event with a personal-best height of 12-9.5 (3.90m) to beat the field by six inches.  She added six more team points with a third-place finish in the long jump, leaping a personal-best distance of 18-7.25 (5.67m).
 
Cope will have a chance to earn even more points tomorrow, as she qualified for the 100-meter hurdle finals with a seventh-place finish (14.73) in Saturday's prelims.  As the defending conference heptathlon champion, she also leads the field in that event with 2,882 points through four of the seven events.
 
Ryan Cook completed an indoor-outdoor sweep in the men's pole vault, winning Saturday's event with a height of 15-9 (4.80m).  Ben Davies (3rd, 14-9, 4.50m) and Cory Sears (5th, 14-3.25, 4.35m) combined to bring Samford's point total to 20 in the event.
 
Freshman Steven Bastien also completed an indoor-outdoor conference sweep, winning Saturday's long jump by the slimmest of margins.  Bastien edged out Western Carolina's Bob McNeil half of an inch, leaping 23-8.75 (7.23m) to McNeil's 23-8.25 (7.22m).  Three other Bulldogs earned points in the event, with Ben Davies (3rd, 23-6, 7.16m), Brandon Bassett (4th, 23-0.5, 7.02m) and Bo Ackerson-Gilroy (21-10.75, 6.67m) helping Samford earn 22 of a possible 39 points in the event.
 
Davies earned Samford's final championship of the day, throwing 191-00 (58.21m) to win the men's javelin.  Samford dominated the field in this event as well, with Davies, Ackerson-Gilroy (3rd, 180-2, 54.93m) Josh Davies (157-8, 48.07m) and Bassett (7th, 154-3, 47.01m) giving Samford a combined 22 points.
 
Freshman Brian Hill came through with a big performance in the men's hammer throw, placing second with a personal-best toss of 164-9 (50.21m).  The finish beat his old best mark by over 20 feet and gave the Bulldogs a crucial eight team points in what should be a tight finish tomorrow.
 
In the women's hammer throw, Kristin Brining (3rd, 163-8, 49.90m) and Shelby Builta (7th, 157-1, 47.88m) both earned top-eight finishes to add a combined eight points to the team's total.  Builta added three more points with a sixth-place finish in the javelin (116-11, 35.64m) as well.  Rachel Wooten added two more points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (7th, 11:25.90), helping her All-Freshman honors for her performance.
 
In Saturday's qualifiers, Samford advanced six women and 10 men to Sunday's finals.  In addition to Cope, Julie McDonald will also represent Samford in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing fourth (14.76) on Saturday.  Danielle Blanco led the pack in the 400-meter hurdle prelims (1:01.27) and will be joined by Leslie Graf (5th, 1:03.70) and Ashley Bridenbaugh (8th, 1:04.60) in Sunday's finals.  All three earned new personal bests.  The women's final qualifier for tomorrow was Marie Demedicis, who finished third in the 800 meters (2:11.43).
 
For the men, Justin Emerson will run a pair of sprint events, winning Saturday's 100-meter dash (10.74) and placing fifth in the 200-meter dash (22.02).  Jonathon Bush will also run in two, placing eighth in the 200-meter dash (22.60) and second in the 400-meter dash (49.11) along with Henry Stevens-Carty in sixth (49.26).  Ben Davies will compete in both the 110-meter hurdle finals (5th, 15.07) and the 400-meter hurdle finals (7th, 54.82) while Ackesron-Gilroy will join him in the 110-meter hurdles (7th, 15.34).  Brandon Hazouri (1st, 1:51.32) and Layton Dorsett (5th, 1:52.65) with both advance to tomorrow's 800-meter finals as well.
Sunday's events begin at 8:30 a.m. ET with the last five events of the men's decathlon.