For the week ending January 29, 2007

Division I
 
Co-Track Athletes of the week
 
Nana Sang-Bender – Syracuse University
Sophomore, Syracuse, N.Y.

Sang-Bender broke her own school record in the mile run at the highly competitive Penn State National Open. She recorded a time of 4:50.98 en route to a sixth-place finish, topping her mark of 4:52.52 that she set at last year's ECAC Championship. Sang-Benders record-breaking time at the National Open qualified her for the 2007 ECAC Championship in the event.
 
Jessica Ortman – University at Albany
Williamsville, N.Y.

Ortman won the 500-meters and qualified for the ECAC meet in a time of 1:15.22 at the Boston Indoor Games, hosted by Northeastern University. She was also a member of the first-place 4x400 relay team, which won the event in 3:54.22. Ortman has now won the 500-meters, 800-meters (twice) and the mile at the various events this season. The sophomore was also named America East Women’s Track Athlete of the Week.
 
Co-Field Athletes of the Week
 
Ashley Huffman – Monmouth University
Senior, South Setauket, N.Y.

Huffman scored 3,856 points in the pentathlon to lead a MU track team at Bucknell’s Bison Open on Friday night. Huffman’s marks in the five-event competition were 8.52 in the 55 meter hurdles, 5’5” in the high jump, 34’3.5” in the shot put, 19’10.75” in the long jump and 2:27.15 in the 800. Huffman’s winning score was good enough to put her on the NCAA Division I Provisional list for the event. It is the third-best performance in the nation so far this year and also set a new Monmouth school record.  It is the first time in school history that Huffman, or any female from MU has qualified provisionally for the NCAAs in the pentathlon. She becomes just the second Monmouth female athlete to hit an NCAA Division I provisional qualifying mark in indoor track & field, joining Lacy Johnson who did so in the weight throw in 2001.
 
Tahari James – Boston University
Junior, Branford, Conn.

James broke a university record during the Terrier Invitational, by leaping to a distance of 20-feet, 3.75 inches in the long jump, taking first-place in the event. She was the sole Terrier to break twenty-feet in the finals. With the jump, James reached the provisional standard for the NCAA Indoor Championships. James also placed second in the triple jump with a distance of 42-feet, 2.75 inches, producing another provisional standard for the NCAA championships. The junior was also named America East Women’s Field Performer of the Week.