SETTING THE FOUNDATION: VCU WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD SEASON REVIEW
When senior Danielle Williams (Virginia Beach, Va.) crossed the finish line at the Georgia Tech Invitational on May 17th, she not only capped off an incredible final senior season, but she helped put the exclamation point on the message that VCU women’s track and field is sending to the rest of the league.

The Black and Gold put together one of the more impressive seasons in recent history as the Rams continually posted new records, personal bests and victories every weekend.

Williams’ performance at Georgia Tech broke a nine-year old school record and found her outperforming athletes from national powerhouses such as Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, not to mention improving her season best from 2007 by over eight seconds.

“We’d had results in practice all year that showed she had the capability to run faster than the school record,” Assistant Coach Ethan Tussing said. “It just took us finding a meet with the competition to do it in when she was fresh. We knew she had more than her previous best of 2:14.74, which was run just shortly after the second fastest 1500-meter race of her life. I’m glad she got the record and I’m extremely proud of Danielle for all she achieved this year and the way she went out on top.”

Along with the outdoor 800-meter record, Williams posted the second fasted time in the indoor 800-meter with a time of 2:14.78 at the Virginia Tech Challenge.

Williams’ classmate Frankie Moore (Chesapeake, Va.) also enjoyed the most successful season of her career as the veteran high jumper posted a total of eight victories with two in the indoor season and six during the outdoor season. The Chesapeake, Va. native found herself in the top-five at 15 of the 16 meets she competed in.

Other season highlights included the 4x400 meter relay team of senior Erika Banks (Hampton, Va.), juniors Verniece Johnson (Mineral, Va.) and Whitney Key (Goochland, Va.) and freshman Kendra Griffin (Chesapeake, Va.), who broke the eight-year old school record in the 4x400 indoor with a time of 3:56.14 at the Virginia Tech Challenge on February 23, topping the old record by nearly two seconds.

During the outdoor season, the 4x400 relay squad of Banks, Key and veterans Cassandra Thorndique (Norfolk, Va.) and Sharmane Duren (Richmond, Va.) nearly etched their names in the Black and Gold record book as their time of 3:50.10 at the Patriot Open on May 3 came up just 0.70 seconds off the 15-year old school record.

“It was great to see how we posted school records in the indoor 4x400 and outdoor 800, along with running the second fastest times in school history in those events in the opposite seasons,” Tussing said. “A lot of our athletes came a long way this year and achieved some great feats. I am a little disappointed that we had such a large senior class and that we only had one year to work with them, but I’m very excited about the potential of our group of returnees for next year. I don’t expect the new 4x400 indoor or the 15-year old outdoor record to last beyond next year and that speaks immensely to the kind of progress we are making here at VCU.”

One glance over the 2007-2008 results for the Rams and the progress is obvious. 17 different members of the squad posted personal bests on the season with the team combining to tally a jaw-dropping 47 personal-bests on the season.

Highlighting the personal bests was Banks’ time of 56.36 in the 400-meter, freshman Danyelle Barnes’(Aberdeen, Md.) times of 12.07 in the 100-meter and 24.96 in the 200-meter, freshman K'yana Hill’s (Richmond, Va.) time of 25.02 in the 200-meter and junior Natalie Duncan’s (Alexandria, Va.) toss of 43’ 1 ¾” in the shot put.

"I'm so proud of all the personal bests we had on the team this year and I feel like we've set ourselves up for a solid summer, a great fall and an opportunity to do amazing things next spring," Tussing said. "Keep your eyes on VCU women's track and field as we continue to build pride, one victory at a time."