Track and Field Fights to the Finish; Earns Best-Ever Finish of Third at AAC Championships

Friday, February 28

Birmingham, Ala.

Temple University

AAC Indoor Championships

Track and Field Fights to the Finish; Earns Best-Ever Finish of Third at AAC Championships

2.29.20 | Women's Track and Field

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – History was made at the 2020 American Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, as the Temple track and field team scored a program-record 71 points and earned its highest-ever finish of third to cap off an outstanding weekend of competition. The Owls put six on the podium and earned three championship titles on their way to their best conference meet since joining the American in 2013.

Meet Highlights
> Aisha Brown was phenomenal to get day two of the AAC Championships started in the high jump. After earning silver in the event last season, the junior was relentless to take home her first-ever gold medal at the championship meet. Brown opened at 1.72m and cleared the bar with ease on her first attempt. She advanced to 1.76m, where she soared over the bar on her second try. Moving up to 1.79m with just three other competitors, she emerged victorious as the lone jumper to clear the height. Brown's mark of 5-10.5 is her best jump this season and earned Temple 10 points with its first individual title of the day.
> Following, Candus Burks was outstanding in the triple jump to earn her best-ever indoor mark of 11.66m.
> In the first track event of the day, senior Millie Howard and junior Helene Gottlieb lined up to compete in the mile final. Howard battled her way to the front in a race that came down to less than a second deciding first through third place. Howard ultimately earned silver in the event after sprinting down the final stretch to cross the finish line in 4:51.85. About halfway through the race, Gottlieb unfortunately fell victim to a tightly-squeezed front pack that took her down. The junior was resilient, getting back up to complete the race and reset for her 800m final later that day.
> Marissa White was once again outstanding in the 400m dash. The sophomore blazed through the event in 54.47, clocking her fastest-ever time in Cherry and White (both indoor and outdoor). She moved up from her seventh-place seed to earn fourth overall, racking up five points for the Owls for the second straight season.
> Temple made history in the 800m run, sweeping the event for the first time in program history to earn 24 points. Alanna Lally crossed the finish line first for the Owls, earning her first-ever gold medal with a time of 2:08.80. Overcoming adversity from the mile final just a few hours earlier, Gottlieb battled her way to the front to earn silver in the 800m for the third time in her career. The junior clocked in at 2:09.49 for the second-place finish. To complete the Cherry and White sweep, Howard crossed the finish line in 2:10.36 in her fifth event of the weekend to earn her third medal at the championship meet.
> In the final individual event of the day, the distance duo of Grace Moore and Michelle Joyce were superb in the 3000m. Moore battled throughout the entirety of the race, finishing with a time of 9:37.61 to earn three points with a sixth place finish in the field of 51. Joyce ran the best 3000m race of her career, shaving nearly 10 seconds off of her personal best time to place 10th after crossing the line in 9:46.37.
> To conclude an outstanding jam-packed day, Temple's 4x400m relay team ran its fastest time of the season to earn three points with a sixth-place finish. The quartet of White, Mallorie Smith, Brown and Lally ran the fastest time for Temple since 2016, clocking in at 3:44.81.

All-Conference Performers
> Brown (first, high jump)
> DMR – White, Gottlieb, Howard, Lally
> Howard (second, mile; third, 800m)
> Lally (first, 800m)
> Gottlieb (second, 800m)

From the Coach
> "Weekends like this that really show the direction that our program is headed are so important," said head coach Elvis Forde. "Our team really stepped up this weekend, and it's a testament to every single person that is involved in our program. We came here and we executed, and I'm so proud of how hard everyone worked to achieve what we did. With only 12 athletes, we scored 71 points, set a meet record and earned a handful of medals. It was a full team performance across the board to make things happen this weekend, and all day long we hit PR's and worked for one another to earn our highest finish since we joined the American. I'm so proud of everything they accomplished and look forward to them building off of this moving forward."