Spiders Open 2012 Season at UNC Dick Taylor Invite

A solid start to the season...

Sophomore Grace Gibson broke her own Spider record
in the Pole Vault.

Clevinger, Gibson Shine on Day Two of Dick Taylor

Courtesy:Richmond Athletics
Release:01/14/2012 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Freshman Taylor Clevinger and sophomore Grace Gibson were stellar for the Spiders on Saturday as Richmond Track & Field wrapped up its first meet of the indoor season at UNC's Dick Taylor Invitational.

Gibson (Virginia Beach, Va./Princess Anne) headlined the second day of field action for the Spiders in Chapel Hill, recording a leap of 3.40 meters in the pole vault to reset her own school record and secure a sixth-place finish.

Richmond Spiders on 2011 U.S. Track & Field Performance List

U.S. Track & Field News recently released their 2011 year end national track & field performance rankings and the University of Richmond had several athletes on the list….Women’s 4X1500M, Andrew Benford (3KSC), Nicol Traynor (3KSC) and Matt Llano (10K)…See lists below: 

University of Richmond Head Coach Lori Taylor encourages one of 10 Richmond Spider athletes competing in 12 different events at the first round of the 2011 NCAA DI Track & Field Championships in Indiana. The Spiders ended the year with 5 NCAA All-American honorees (Andrew Benford-3KSC-2011, Matt Llano-10K-2010, Heather Roush-Javelin-2011, Nicol Traynor-3KSC-2011, Amy Van Alstine-5K-2011).  (Dan Petty Photo)

Even the Smallest SPIDERS have Giant Brains

Did you know that the smallest of Spiders have huge brains?  Spiders brains are so large they even extend into  their legs!  Now for those of us here in the track & field office at the University of Richmond, where our official mascot is the Spider...we are not surprised at all by this fact.

According to a recent New York Times Article: "Researchers measured the central nervous systems of nine species of spiders in a range of sizes. While the smallest had smaller brains in absolute terms, relatively speaking their brains were enormous."  READ MORE HERE.