May 12, 2005

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Christine Spence led the heptathlon after five events at the Mountain West Conference Outdoor Championships but the senior struggled in the javelin and finished fifth Friday in the seven-event competition with 4,956 points.

Spence led eventual winner Katie Lloyd of Colorado State by 155 points heading into the javelin but Spence scored only 219 points in the event with a toss of 53'-2.00" Lloyd tallied 611 points in the javelin to move past Spence and into the lead. Spence was the only athlete in the 12-person field who did not record a throw over 100 feet in the javelin.

Spence opened the second day of competition by scoring 720 points in the long jump and then ended the heptathlon by scoring 786 points in the 800 meters with a time of 2:22.80, but it wasn't enough to overcome her performance in the javelin. She also finished just 44 points shy from reaching the NCAA Regional provisional qualifying mark of 5,000 points in the heptathlon as well.

Lloyd won the competition with 5,141 points and she was followed in second place by Liis Berendsen of BYU, who scored 5,056 points. Janine Polischuck of San Diego State University was third with 5,050 points, Christina Gourdin of CSU came in fourth with 4,985 points and Spence rounded out the top five.

Teri Trautwein also competed in the heptathlon for the Rebels and the senior finished 11th with 4,038 points.

With the conclusion of the multi-events Thursday the rest of the field begins competing Friday at Jack Christiansen Track on the campus of Colorado State. The women's hammer is the first field event of the day and that begins at 9:00 a.m. (PT) while the first track event is the women's steeplechase which starts at 12:30 p.m.