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April 8, 2004

On Friday and Saturday, April 9-10, 2004, the Virginia Cavaliers will host the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational. The meet will be held at Lannigan Field and run throughout the day. The hammer throw will be the only event on Friday, starting at 3:30. The rest of the competition will run all day Saturday.

The women are led by Inge Jorgensen in the javelin and Rachel Marks and Meggie Schuelke in the high jump. Jorgensen has the best javelin throw this year in the ACC with a distance of 163′ 4″, more than 15 feet farther than anyone else in the ACC. Jorgensen has already qualified for NCAA regionals and Sarah Convery will also look to qualify in this weekend’s competition. Marks and Schuelke have both improved over the past few weeks and after last week’s performance, they are tied for third in the ACC. This week, they will continue their quest to keep improving in the high jump. Other top performers include Tomika Ferguson, Caroline Harvey, Erin Crawford, and Sharon O’Connor. Ferguson and Harvey will compete in the 100m. Harvey, along with Ashley Gore and Tiffany Roberts, will compete in the 200m. Gore, Roberts, and Morgan Cephas will also compete in the 400m. Sharon O’Connor and Huma Husain will both look to qualify for NCAA regionals in the 800m. The 1500m will include eight entrants from UVa. Sharon O’Connor, Janine Ricci, Shannon Hawrylo, Huma Husain, Emily Hampson, Kelly Behan, Cheryl Carr, and Laura Hodges should make this the most exciting event on the women’s side. Janine Holman and Rachel Marks will compete in the 100m hurdles. Erin Crawford will look to go under one minute for the 400m hurdles along with Janine Holman. The 3000m steeplechase will be run by Melanie Matthews and Shannon Hawrylo. The threesome of Kathryn Pettine, Alicia LaRoche, and Lauren Taggart will look to improve their personal bests in the pole vault as both Pettine and LaRoche are among the ACC’s top vaulters. Harvey will also add the long jump to the 100m and the 200m. The triple jump will include Tomika Ferguson and Marks. The Cavaliers will also add a 4x100m and a 4x400m relay team.

On the men’s side, the Cavaliers are led by Kellen Blassingame in the 400m and David Sullivan in the pole vault. Blassingame broke a 25-year old school record in the 400m last week with a time of 46.76. Blassingame beat the record previously held by Jim Bruce who ran a 46.94. Sporting the home field advantage, Blassingame will run the 100m, 200m, and 400m dash. Sullivan turned in his best performance in the pole vault, clearing a height of 16′ 8.75″. That height puts Sullivan at #2 all time at Virginia in the pole vault. Sullivan will look to place in the pole vault and the high jump. In the 100m, the Cavaliers have seven entries. Joining Blassingame will be Isi Azeke, Shadion Buckley, Kevin Carson, Daniel Garrett, Chase Holt, and Damon Hoyle. In the 200m, Blassingame will compete with teammates Azeke, Buckley, Carson, Garrett, Holt, Hoyle, Jason Young, Gemayel Hazard, and Erik Schulman. Joining Blassingame in the 400m will be Young, Schulman, and Carson. Eight Cavaliers will headline the 110m hurldles. Participants include Hazard, Reid, Azeke, Sullivan, Devin Canaday, Stephen Hiltner, Scott Robinson, and Thomas Codevilla. Three of the 110m hurdles runners will double up and run the 400m hurdles as Reid, Canaday, and Hiltner will all try to qualify for NCAA regionals. Switching to the distance corps, the Cavaliers will look to dominate the 800m. Led by McGavock Dunbar, the team will also feature Matt Antunes, Jon Britt, Zach Davis, Alex Tatu, Amr Kouchouk, and Alec Lorenzoni. Tatu will also run the 1500m with several other fresh Cavaliers, including Will Christian, Ryan Neuhart, Grady Sullivan, Walton Kingsbery, Ryan Foster, Matt Gutridge, Alec Lorenzoni, Brad Rodgers, Michael Kennedy, and Noah Eisenberg. Running the 5000m will be Andrew Filachek, Andrew Dumm, Taylor Smith, and Justin Villegas. The field events will also be very competitive. The high jump will feature Sullivan, Chris Clementson, and Thomas Codevilla. In the pole vault, Sullivan will be joined by Greg Blair. The long jump will include Azeke, Buckley, Canaday, and Garrett. Walker Anderson will triple up on the shot put, discus, and the hammer. The Cavalier men will also run a 4×100 and 4×400 relay team.

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