Track: WVU to Begin Outdoor Season
March 18, 2010 02:28 PM | General
March 18, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University track and field team is set to begin the 2010 outdoor season with a trip to Winston-Salem, N.C., for the Wake Forest Demon Deacon Open on March 19-20.
More than 1,500 athletes from 40 different schools and organizations are set to compete this weekend with top-athletes from Appalachian State, Brevard, Davidson, Duke, East Carolina, High Point, UNC Greensboro, Winston-Salem State and Wake Forest competing.
The Mountaineers are coming off a historic finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., where they finished in 10th place and had all seven student-athletes to earn All-America honors.
WVU earned the highest finish of any BIG EAST team as it scored 18 points for 10th place. Oregon finished in the top spot with 61 points, while Tennessee finished second (36), LSU in third (35), Florida in fourth (33) and Texas A&M in fifth (31).
WVU started the meet qualifying a student-athlete in the mile for the first time since 1999 when Kate Vermeulen won the national title, as senior Keri Bland finished in third with a time of 4:41.87. Junior Kaylyn Christopher also competed in the event and finished in 12th with a time of 4:46.76 to earn All-America honors by virtue of being one of the top eight U.S. Citizens in the race. Bland went on to finish eighth in the finals with a time of 4:42.49 earning her second All-America honor of the week.
In the 5,000-meter race, senior Marie-Louise Asselin broke her own school record to earn All-America honors with a second-place finish (15:50.53). Senior Clara Grandt also had an excellent race finishing 11th (16:14.09) and was also awarded All-America honors by virtue of being one of the top eight U.S. citizens in the race.
The distance medley relay team of Bland, Christopher, April Rotilio and Jessica O’Connell raced to an eighth-place showing with a time of 11:16.39 to be named All-Americans.
Junior Chelsea Carrier, the Mid-Atlantic Field Athlete of the Year earned her first-ever All-America honors with a fourth-place finish in the pentathlon with 4,133 total points. She then returned later in the day to earn her second All-America honor in the 60-meter hurdles with a sixth-place showing in the finals, as she crossed the line in 8.29.
Action is set to begin at Kentner Stadium with the women’s hammer throw at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, March 19.
