Lawson shatters two 19-year-old school records as Sea Gulls soar at Emory Invitational
ATLANTA - The last time a Salisbury University women's track and field sprinter set the school records in the 200 and 400 meters Victoria Lawson was just an infant. Nineteen years later, Lawson wrote her own name in the SU record books as she tore up the track on Saturday at the 2007 Emory University Spring Break Invitational in Atlanta.

The freshman finished second to the defending NCAA Division III national champion Rachel Anderson from Illinois Wesleyan in the 400 meters. Lawson, 19, posted a time of 57.74 which broke Kim Hatlee's school record (57.83) set in 1988. Lawson's time was 14 tenths of a second off the NCAA provisional time of 57.60, which qualifies runners for the national championships. Lawson was third in the 200 meters with a time of 26.24 which also broke Hatlee's 1988 record of 26.30.

The SU women's team finished third overall, the highest place ever under SU coach Jim Jones at this meet, out of 19 teams. The Sea Gulls accumulated 91.5 points as Illinois Wesleyan and Hope took the first two places, respectively. Salisbury's men's team matched last season's fourth place performance as the Sea Gulls scored 76 points against 23 teams. Emory won the men's competition with 122 points.

"Our teams competed against some national caliber competition," said Jones. "This is a huge step forward for us toward winning the conference championships."

The men's 4x100 meter relay team of freshman Justin Acker, junior Kevin Teal, freshman Wayne Turner and senior Marcus Tines came in first place. Freshman Bobby Price won the men's high jump with a leap of six feet and four inches. Freshman Christian Adami was third overall in the javelin with a toss of 184 feet and four inches.

Rachel Knapstein broke her own school record (9'9") in the pole vault as she cleared 10 feet, six inches. The sophomore finished third overall in the event. Sophomore Kelly Sullivan won the women's steeplechase with a time of 11:24.72.

Salisbury will next be in action on Saturday, March 31, at the Maryland Terrapin Invitational in College Park, Md.