Six Wildcats on all-time ballot
3/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field, Track & Field
Six Wildcat greats on all-time ballot
ACU has more athletes on 25th anniversary ballot than any school
ABILENE -- Six of the greatest performers in the history of ACU women's track and field are on the ballot for the 25th anniversary NCAA Division II women's track and field team.
The NCAA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of women's championships by naming 25th anniversary teams in volleyball, basketball and track and field. ACU assistant volleyball coach and former West Texas A&M standout Sarah (Butler) Carthel was voted last fall to the 25th anniversary volleyball team.
The six Wildcats on the track and field ballot are Tracey Barnes, Maresa Cadienhead, Delloreen Ennis-London, Ann Foster, Yolanda Henry and Marlene Lewis. ACU's six representatives on the ballot are the most of any of the 27 schools with athletes on the ballot and represents 11 percent of the 55-athlete ballot.
That ACU has more athletes on the ballot should come as no surprise. ACU owns an NCAA Division II all-time best nine women's outdoor national championships, three more than Cal Poly, which owns six. Cal Poly is now an NCAA Division I affiliate. ACU's longtime rival on the track, St. Augustine's, has four national titles, while new powerhouse Lincoln (Mo.) has won three straight, and Alabama A&M has two.
To qualify as a candidate for the team, each student-athlete on the ballot has won a minimum of three NCAA championships in outdoor track and field and/or currently holds an NCAA Division II championship record. Voting will remain open until April 1 and the public can vote for their top 10 student-athletes. Voting for the NCAA Division II can be done at www.ncaasports.com/track-and-field/fanpolls/1016.
Barnes is the top 200-meter and quartermile runner in ACU women's track and field history with five outdoor national championships to her credit. She won the 200 meters in 1998 and 1999 and won the 400 meters in 1996 and again in 1998 and 1999.
Ennis-London is the greatest short hurdler in NCAA Division II history as she finished undefeated in eight championship finals races. She won the NCAA Division II indoor championship in the 55-meter hurdles from 1996-99, and she won the outdoor championship in the 100-meter hurdles from 1996-99. As a senior in 1999 she won the 100-meter hurdles at the Texas Relays and the Penn Relays before winning the national championship. Running for her native Jamaica in the 2000 Olympics, she was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles final.
Cadienhead won back-to-back outdoor national championships in the high jump (2001-02), and in the process of winning the 2000 title in San Angelo she shattered the previous Division II best in the high jump with her winning mark of 6-4.75 (1.95 meters). The previous best was 6-3.25, which was set in 1987 by Phyllis Bluntson of Cal State-Bakersfield.
Ann Foster was a four-time outdoor triple jump national champion (1984-87), and Marlene Lewis won four outdoor national championships (discus in 1986-88 and shot put in 1987) on her way to earning induction into the NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Henry is regarded as perhaps the finest all-around athlete in women's track and field history with six outdoor national championships to her credit. She won the high jump four straight times (1984-87), and she also won the 400-meter hurdles in 1986 and 1987. Henry was a two-time U.S. national champion in the high jump (1990 and 1991), won a silver medal in the high jump at the Goodwill Games in 1990, and is one of only six U.S. women ever to jump at least 2.0 meters (6-6.75).
