CCU Spring Sports Notebook: Gelibert impresses at prestigious Penn Relays

Coastal Carolina track and field star Jessica Gelibert has had lofty expectations following her from the time she stepped on campus.

And days like Thursday are precisely the reason for that.

Gelibert delivered the biggest highlight for the Chanticleers on the first day of the famed Penn Relays in Philadelphia, placing second overall in the 400-meter hurdles and finishing as the top collegian with a season-best time of 57.87 seconds.

She finished just behind Rushell Clayton (57.81), of Jamaica, and compared to available data on record entering this day, Gelibert’s time ranks 13th overall among all NCAA Division I runners this season and eighth in the East region.

“She was seeded fourth coming in and there was some fast Jamaican runners in there and some of the other top NCAA runners, so we knew she had a shot to win the race,” Chants coach Jeff Jacobs said. “[But] it’s particularly impressive because of the weather conditions. It was in the 40s and pretty windy – 10 to 20 mile-per-hour winds – so far from ideal. …

“She executed a great race and just showed once again she’s one of the top 400-meter hurdlers in the NCAA.”

Jacobs could not say for sure, but he doesn’t think a Coastal Carolina women’s track and field competitor has ever won a Penn Relays event outright so he believes Gelibert’s finish would at the least tie for the best in program history at the event.

Gelibert, a junior from Bay Shore, N.Y., is the reigning Big South outdoor champion in the 400 hurdles and was named the conference’s runner of the year last spring.

She has effectively locked up a spot in the NCAA East Preliminary Round (May 28-30) as one of the top 48 competitors in that event from the region and will need a top-12 finish at that meet to move on to the NCAA finals.

“She’s definitely showing she’s one of those runners that can make it to the national final in Oregon,” Jacobs said.

In other results Thursday, the Coastal Carolina women’s 4x100-meter relay finished 23rd out of 98 teams with a time of 47.42 seconds. Texas won the race in 45.59 as the top nine teams qualified for the championship race.

Nelson ready for his turn

Senior Reggie Nelson is another Chanticleer looking to make a mark at the prestigious Penn Relays this week, and he comes into the meet with quite a bit of momentum.

Nelson has been named the Big South’s Men’s Field Athlete of the Week each of the last two weeks for two different events.

Most recently, he was honored for winning the long jump at the Campbell University Invitational last weekend with a personal-best mark of 7.24 meters (23 feet, 9 inches).

Last week he was recognized for placing second in the high jump – his primary event – at the Bill Carson Invitational in Greenville, N.C., clearing a height of 2.15 meters (7 feet, 0.5 inches) to match his season best. That was the highest mark in the Big South this season and at the time the 18th-highest jump in the NCAA.

Nelson will compete in the high jump championships at the Penn Relays on Saturday afternoon.

“He’s been consistent right around the 7-foot mark this whole season so it’s pretty impressive to see the level that he’s already jumping at this point in the year,” Jacobs said. “... He’s definitely shown that he’s one of the top high jumpers in the country right now, and to top that off, we haven’t focused that much on the long jump, but at the conference level he’s been an all-conference guys for us in [that too].”

Nelson, a senior from Dillon, has been an incredible success story for the Chants after initially joining the program as a walk-on.

He earned NCAA Honorable Mention All-American honors last season in the high jump after placing 19th at the NCAA championship meet.

“It’s been great to see his progress over the years, starting with us as a walk-on, the work ethic that he has,” Jacobs said. “He’s such a great student-athlete as well how he represents himself. He’s going to complete the MBA program this summer. ... Just a great student-athlete, a great example of what happens when you really focus, have a great work ethic and have some belief in what you can do. He has all those things.”

Women’s lacrosse having breakthrough season

The Coastal Carolina women’s lacrosse team wraps up its regular season Friday with a game at Campbell while looking to continue a breakthrough spring for the program.

The Chants (9-5, 4-2 Big South) have won eight of their last 10 games after a slow start and have raised the bar after finishing 5-11 and 5-12 in their first two seasons.

Junior Keri White leads the team with 30 goals and 13 assists while senior Jen Cosgrove is not far behind with 30 goals and eight assists and junior Sara Nolan has 22 goals and four assists.

Also keep an eye on ...

The Chants’ softball team also finishes its regular season this weekend, hosting Presbyterian in a double-header Saturday and the series finale Sunday.

Coastal Carolina (29-21, 14-16) has lost four of its last five games and enters the final weekend second in the Big South standings behind Longwood (14-4 in the league).

Tennis teams wrap up seasons

Both the Coastal Carolina women’s and men’s tennis teams saw their seasons come to an end earlier this week at the Big South tournament in Asheville, N.C.

The No. 2-seeded women reached the finals against top-seeded Charleston Southern before falling 4-0.

The top-seeded Coastal Carolina men, meanwhile, lost 4-2 to No. 4 Campbell in the semifinals for a disappointing finish to an otherwise successful season.

“We were really disappointed because we had to play indoors at the conference tournament,” men’s coach Chris Powers said. “That really was a drawback for us. We had beaten the two teams in the final 6-1 both of them just before the tournament. We felt great going in, felt like we had a great shot to win it, but it didn’t work out for us the way we would have liked. But it was a great season [overall]. We lived up to our potential and I feel good about it.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 6:30 PM with the headline "CCU Spring Sports Notebook: Gelibert impresses at prestigious Penn Relays."