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March 15, 2007
The men’s and women’s track and field teams open their 2007 outdoor seasons as they travel to Charlotte, N.C. to compete in the 49ers Invitational this weekend.
Member’s of both the men’s and women’s teams received All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships last weekend. Fourth-year Tomika Ferguson (Evergreen, Va.) received the honor in the triple jump for the second consecutive year and Alex Tatu (Chester, Va.), Brian Lee Jr. (Richmond, Va.), Jordan Orr (Greensboro, N.C.), and Kevin McHale (Fairfax, Va.) all received All-America honors as members of the Distance Medley Relay. The DMR team shattered the school record at the Alex Wilson Invitational when they qualified for the NCAA meet. The DMR record has been broken twice in the last four seasons.
At the 49ers’ Invitational, Virginia has athletes competing across the board. Amy Bilmanis (Hughesville, Md.) and Alexa Manning (Coram, N.Y.) compete in the hammer throw to begin events on Friday. Rob Rankin (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Kyle Galle (Warwick, R.I.) will compete in the hammer on the men’s side. Rankin will also compete with first-year Eric Pickle (Knoxville, Tenn.) in the shot put. Pickle will also be competing in the discus throw on Saturday. Kathryn Pettine (Centreville, Va.) and Katie Darraugh (Lake Forest, Ill.) will both compete in the pole vault at 2:00 p.m. while David Lewis (Centreville, Va.) will compete in the javelin throw, 110 meter hurdles, and pole vault as he looks to improve his personal bests for the decathlon. Jeff McClurg (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) and Stephen Thompson (Crozet, Va.) will join Lewis in the pole vault competition.
First-year Ariane Sloan (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) will compete in both the 400 meters and the 800 meters. Joining Sloan in the 800 meters will be fellow first-year Erin Klein (Burke, Va.) and second-year Danielle Light (Oakton, Va.). Multi-event athlete Bianca Debartolo (Syndney, Australia) will compete in the 100 meter hurdles, 200 meter dash, and javelin throw. First-year Meghan Briggs (Palmyra, Pa.) and second-year Caitlin Kelly (Florham Park, N.J.) will join DeBartolo in the javelin. First-years Arthur Gennari (Housatonic, Mass.) and Aaron Klansek (Bluffton, Ind.) will both compete in the high jump at noon on Saturday. Alex Bowman (Richmond, Va.) and Kevin Tschirhart (Northport, N.Y.) will both be competing in the 800 meter run on Saturday, while Bowman will join Steve Frames (Great Falls, Va.) in the 1500 meter competition on Friday. Second-year Lauretta Dezubay (Bethlehem, Pa.) and third-year Jen Dolson (Oakton, Va.) will both be competing in the 3000 meter run on Saturday, while on the men’s side, James Erickson (Detroit, Mich.) and Sam Fletcher (Auburn, Maine) will both be running the 3k.
Next up for Virginia will be the Wake Forest Invitational in Winton-Salem, N.C. next weekend.