Named weekly field athlete and weekly rookie track athlete, respectively.
NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Senior pole vaulter Erika Barber (Portland) and freshman hurdler and high-jumper Tyler Edwardsen (Ledyard) from the Eastern Connecticut State University indoor track and field programs have been recognized with weekly individual honors by the Little East Conference for their performances for the week ending Sunday, Feb. 7.
At left: Erika Barber
Barber was named Little East female Athlete-of-the-Week for field events for the first time in her four-year career while Edwardsen was recognized as the LEC's male Rookie Athlete-of-the-Week in track events for the first time this season. Barber helped the women to second place in Saturday's Springfield College Invitational while Edwardsen led the men to third place.
At Springfield, Barber broke the program's indoor pole vault record for the sixth time in her career with a record-setting vault of 10-feet-6 inches that qualified her for the ECAC Division III Championships in early March. It was four inches higher than her previous record set last January 24 at Springfield, when she reached the 10-foot plateau for the first time. Barber is undefeated in five meets this season. The win Saturday at Springfield was the 11th in her career. As a junior, she captured first place four times after winning twice as a sophomore.
After transferring to Eastern in January of her freshman year, Barber broke the program's pole vault record with a mark of 8-4 ΒΌ in her first meet on Jan. 20, 2007 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Saturday, Edwardsen won the 55 meter hurdles for the second time at Springfield this year. He was clocked in personal-best time of 8.14 in the preliminaries in winning his heat, then was timed in a program-record 7.91 in capturing the final by .09 over Victor Servito of Stevens Tech. Servito's time in the preliminaries was .07 faster than Edwardsen. Edwardsen, who also qualified for the ECAC Championships with his finals time, broke the two-year-old program record of 7.99.
Above: Tyler Edwardsen
Barber becomes the third Eastern female to gain weekly LEC recognition in track this winter, while Edwardsen is the sixth male to be cited for his performance.
Eastern competes in the Little East Conference/New England Alliance Championships Saturday at the Costello Complex on the University of Southern Maine campus.
