WVU Track Travels to NCAAs
March 11, 2010 11:55 AM | General
March 11, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 15 West Virginia University track and field team is set to travel to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., to compete in the 2010 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 12-13.
This season, WVU will be represented by a school-record seven student-athletes including seniors Marie-Louise Asselin, Clara Grandt, Keri Bland, April Rotilio, and juniors Kaylyn Christopher, Jessica O’Connell and Chelsea Carrier.
“We are taking the most kids and competing in the most events that our program ever as qualified for the nationals,” coach Sean Cleary says. “Now it comes down to taking advantage of this opportunity. Our sport is progressing and kids are getting stronger and faster.”
Carrier, the Mid-Atlantic Region Field Athlete of the Year, will compete in two events as she prepares for the pentathlon and the 60-meter hurdles. She is currently ranked No. 5 on the national top performance list for the season in the pentathlon after she posted a school record and NCAA automatic qualifying performance at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge on Feb. 5.
The Buckhannon, W.Va., native won the event with 4,136 points to break the school record previously set by All-American Pat Itanyi in 1997 (4,111). Carrier finished first in the 60-meter hurdles (8.45), the high jump (1.71 meters), the long jump (5.92 meters), the shot put (10.99 meters) and the 800-meter run (2:20.09).
She also ranks 19th on the national performance list for the season in the 60-meter hurdles after posting a career-best performance at the Columbia Last Chance Meet in New York in March 5. Carrier took first in the event with a time of 8.27.
WVU will have two runners competing in the mile, as Bland and Christopher prepare for the event. The duo posted automatic qualifying times at the last chance meet where Bland finished in first place with a time of 4:37.17, while Christopher finished in fourth with a provisional time of 4:40.78. Bland enters the meet ranked No. 7 in the mile, while Christopher is rated No. 12.
The Mountaineers also have two entries in the 5,000-meter race in Asselin and Grandt. Ranked sixth and 12th, respectively, Asselin and Grandt aided WVU to a fourth-place finish at the BIG EAST Championships as they finished in first and second in the event. In her first time running the 5,000-meter race indoors, Asselin finished in 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.
O’Connell will represent the Mountaineers in the 3,000-meter run as she enters this weekend ranked No. 12 in the event after posting an NCAA provisional time and finishing first at the last chance meet with a time of 9:16.22.
For the 10th time in the past 12 seasons, the Mountaineers will have a distance medley relay team at nationals. The team of Bland, Rotilio, Christopher and O’Connell landed an NCAA automatic qualifying time as they took the title at the Eastern College Athlete Conference Championships on March 7. The team finished in 11:09.28, which puts it eighth on the national list for this season.
“To have qualified every girl in the latter point of the season is very encouraging,” adds Cleary. “We appear to be peaking at the right time and now can only go out and do what we have trained to do. Should we do so, we will come home very happy.”
The meet is set to begin at 10 a.m. CT on Friday, March 12, with the men’s heptathlon. WVU’s first event is scheduled for 5:10 p.m., on Friday, when Bland and Christopher line up for the mile run. For a full list of events and for live stats, visit www.ncaa.com.
