Track: Mountaineers Back in National Rankings
February 23, 2010 12:38 PM | General
By Kelly Tuckwiller for MSNsportsNET.com
February 23, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University track and field team is back in the national polls this week coming in at No. 22 announced today the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
“These girls are starting to come together,” coach Sean Cleary says. “As we continue through the championship portion of the season, we just need to get over a few nagging injuries and sicknesses and should live up to these rankings.”
The Mountaineers dropped out of the polls last week, but returned after a fourth-place showing at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships at the Armory in New York City on Feb. 21.
WVU led after day one of competition and scored 76.50 points to finish and match a school-best performance. Villanova earned the top spot with 115 points, while Louisville (107) finished in second, Connecticut (84) came in third and Georgetown (67) rounded out the top five.
WVU had a weekend of excellent showings as junior Chelsea Carrier placed first in the 60-meter hurdles (8.31) and in the pentathlon (3,994). The Buckhannon, W.Va., native is currently No. 2 on the national top performance list for the pentathlon after meeting NCAA automatic qualifying standards at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge on Feb 5.
Seniors Marie-Louise Asselin and Clara Grandt also entered the national top performance list this week, as they finished in first and second in the 5,000-meter race at the conference championships. In her first time running the 5,000-meter race indoors, Asselin finished first with a time of 15:58.15, while Grandt followed in second (16:04.24). Both times were school records as well as NCAA automatic qualifying times.
The Mountaineers are set to return to action on March 5-6, when they travel to South Bend, Ind., for the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame.
