Big East Preview
May 01, 2009 10:12 AM | General
May 1, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will be taking a higher-than-usual number of qualifiers to the Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championships taking place this weekend at Jumbo Elliott Stadium in Villanova, Pa.
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| Clara Grandt will be competing in the 5,000 this weekend at the 2009 Big East Championships.
Kirby Lee photo |
In all, Coach Sean Cleary will have 19 athletes competing in the three-day event.
“It’s a little bit higher than last year and probably about equal to the highest that we have had,” Cleary said.
Junior Clara Grandt has the top qualifying time in the 10K but Cleary has chosen to run her in the 5K, while junior cross country All-American Marie-Louise Asselin will be making her outdoor debut in the 10K this weekend.
“Clara is currently ranked third in the country in the 10K and I’m running her in the 5 and she will finish just as high in either event,” Cleary said. “And Marie-Louise should be at the top of the 10K.”
Sophomore Chelsea Carrier has qualifying marks in five different events but Cleary is limiting her to just the 100-meter hurdles because of a nagging foot injury that has hampered her all outdoor season.
“Chelsea has been dinged up all spring so what we are going to do with her is for her to go straight at those hurdles and hopefully she can win it again,” Cleary said.
Sophomore Ahna Lewis is a regional qualifier in the 5K and could contend for a top five finish, along with Alison Spiker in the steeplechase and Karly Hamric in the 800.
April Rotilio (ranked fourth) in the 400-meter hurdles and Alex Aker (fourth) in the pole vault have an opportunity to score points for the Mountaineers, as does Natasha Redman (seventh) in the high jump.
West Virginia presently has eight athletes qualified for NCAA regionals and Cleary is hopeful of getting three or four more this weekend.
Among those Cleary is hoping can get regional qualifying marks include Jessica O’Connell, Kate Harrison, Rotilio and Katelyn Williams.
Freshman distance runner Sara Brault is losing her redshirt status for outdoors to try and qualify for regionals this weekend.
“Right now we’ve passed the largest number of regional qualifiers and we’re still looking to add more to that,” Cleary said. “When I redshirted Keri Bland and Kaylyn Christopher - girls that went one and three indoors and contributed to two gigantic relays - as soon as I did that, I revamped our philosophy for the (Big East) outdoor meet.”
Cleary said he has never been tempted to overuse any of his athletes at the conference meet for the sake of scoring a few more points and perhaps moving up a place or two in the standings.
“To go four years, three seasons per year, it’s a graveyard for burnout,” he admitted. “If the best we can be is seventh, why not be eighth and protect them and save them for regionals and nationals. If we have a real deep team then I’m going to go for it.
“Next winter, I’m looking to take a shot at going for the whole thing (Big East) during indoors. Outdoors I will redshirt a couple of key ones, but we will still be OK because we have so many distance runners now,” Cleary said. “Next year, we’ve got the entire program back. Anyone who scores for us will be back for the following year.”
