N.C. State's Taylor repeats as shot put champ

Led by repeat champion Tremanisha Taylor in the shot put, North Carolina State picked up a pair of victories in field events Thursday at the Penn Relays.

Taylor, a redshirt junior, captured her second straight title in the shot with a season-best 57 feet, 9 inches, the ninth-best shot put in carnival history. Sophomore Alexis Perry surged to victory on her last attempt in the long jump, uncorking a leap of 20-91/4.

Taylor, the champion of last weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference meet, said she was looking forward to a more relaxed atmosphere than last week, and she experienced just that at the new Irving "Moon" Mondschein Throwing Complex.

"Penn is just a laid-back meet right after the ACC championships, so I just came to have some fun," she said. "The new facilities are beautiful, the rings are nice and smooth.

"This win helps my season out a lot. It's an ego boost. It shows that I can compete at a higher level and motivates me for regionals."

Perry, who is also a hurdler for the Wolfpack, was in second place before her final jump gave her the win by three-quarters of an inch over Rochelle Farquharson of Mississippi State, in an event conducted in windy conditions.

"The wind did come in to factor a little bit," Perry said. "But if anything, I'm actually really happy with my performance today because it's the most consistent I've ever been."

Princeton's Julia Ratcliffe, a sophomore from New Zealand, uncorked the third-longest toss in the Penn Relays hammer throw, a mark of 216-2.

Sandi Morris of Arkansas captured the pole vault at 14-51/4, the second-highest vault in carnival history.

Laura Nagel of Providence captured the college women's 3,000 championship in 9 minutes, 7.9 seconds. Cornell's Rachel Sorna was second in 9:09.45.

Princeton's Lizzie Bird won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:16.47.

Kevin Dooney of Yale held off Indiana's Evan Esselink to win the college 5,000 championship in 13:59.38. Esselink took second in 14:01.67.