Asante wins 100m dash for second career UAA title

Vincent Asante '14 receives his medal for winning the 100-meter dash (courtesy Emory Sports Info)
Vincent Asante '14 receives his medal for winning the 100-meter dash (courtesy Emory Sports Info)

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Rookie Vincent Asante (Bronx, N.Y./H.S. of the Arts Inquiry and Imagination) won his second career UAA title, capturing the 100-meter dash at the 2011 University Athletic Association Track and Field championships at Emory University in Atlanta. He helped the Brandeis men to a seventh-place finish. The Brandeis women placed sixth on the strength of four All-Association performances.

Asante won his preliminary race in the event with a time of 11.09 seconds, a season-best, taking his heat by 0.06 seconds. In the championship race, he broke 11 seconds for the first time this season with a time of 10.93 seconds. Asante blew away the field by 0.12 seconds in the championship race. He is just the second Brandeis runner to win the 100-meter dash at the UAA outdoor meet, joining David Weinstein '06 in 2006. Asante also just missed a second All-Association performance, taking fourth in the 200-meter dash. After winning his heat with a time of 22.45 seconds, he ran 22.61 seconds in the finals to finish 0.04 seconds out of third place. You can click the following links to see video of Asante's 100-meter preliminary win and his 200-meter prelim win.

Also earned All-UAA honors for the men was junior Chris Brown (No. Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford), who placed second in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:57.39. Brown finished nine places ahead of his 2010 finish at the outdoor championships. 

The Judges had a pair of near misses for two other All-Association honorees with fourth-place performances. Sophomore Mik Kern (Groton, N.Y./Groton) took fourth in the 800-meter run by a mere one-hurndredth of a second with a time of 1:56.36, while rookie basketball standout Alex Schmidt (Dublin, Ireland/Fork Union (Va.) Military Acad.) cleared 1.83 meters (six feet even) in the high jump, the same height as the second-place finisher, but needed more attempts to clear.

On the women's side, the Judges did not win any races, but had a handful of top-three finishes from competitors who also earned All-Association honors in the winter. Brandeis's top event was the women's 1,500-meter run. Senior Grayce Selig (Narberth, Pa./Springside School) picked up her second UAA runner-up finish of the year with a time of 4:44.57. For the second time, Selig was edged at the wire by Liz Phillips of Washington University. Also for the second time, classmate Marie Lemay (Saco, Maine/Thornton Acad.) was the third-place finisher in the event with a time of 4:49.08.

Brandeis had two All-Association honors in field events as well. Junior Lily Parenteau (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough) finished second in the high jump for the second time in 2011, clearing a height of 1.58 meters (5 feet, 2 1/4 inches). Sophomore Kim Farrington (Shirley, Mass./Ayer) picked up her first career All-UAA honor in the triple jump with a distance of 11.01 meters (36 feet, 1 1/2 inches), edging teammate Lucia Capano (Manchester, N.H./Manchester Central) by three-quarters of an inch for third. Junior Anna Sinjour (New Bedford, Mass./New Bedford) also just missed All-Association kudos with a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.62 seconds after finishing second in the prelims at 59.69.