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May 10, 2007
The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete at the IC4A/ECAC Championships this weekend in Princeton, New Jersey. Last year, at the IC4A/ECAC meet a number of Cavaliers posted regional qualifying times and marks. This weekend should be no different as a number of Virginia student athletes will look to gain entry to the NCAA East Regional meet held in Gainesville, Fla. on May 25 and 26.
Competitors for the women include Bianca Debartolo (Sydney, Australia) in the heptathlon, regional qualifiers Janine Ricci (Maple Glen, Pa.) and Stephanie Garcia (South Riding, Va.) in the steeplechase, and Lauretta Dezubay (Bethlehem, Pa.) and Katie Read (Arlington, Va.), who already owns a provisional qualifying time for the NCAA meet in the 10,000 meters, in the 5,000 meters. Fifth-year Laura Hodges (Wytheville, Va.) will also compete in her signature event, the 10,000 meter run. All-American Kara Scanlin (Ponte Vedra Bach, Fla.) will compete in the 3000 meters on Sunday. Scanlin already owns a regional qualifying time in the 5,000 meters and an NCAA provisional mark in the 10,000 meters.
On Saturday, Virginia will be represented by regional qualifier Katie Tershel (Canonsburg, Pa.) and All-American Tomika Ferguson (Evergreen, Va.) in the long jump. The pair will also compete on Sunday in the ECAC triple jump. Also on Saturday, NCAA regional qualifier Amy Bilmanis (Hughesville, Md.) will compete in the discus. In the running events, the team of Talia Wise (Newport News, Va.), Janne’a Bridgeford (Upper Darby, Pa.), Tiffany Roberts (Jamestown, N.C.) and Ferguson will compete in the 4X100 meter relay. Sara Casscells (Wilmington, Del.) and Danielle Light (Oakton Va.) will compete in the 1500 meters, while Keshia Ashe (Hampton, Va.) will compete in the 100 hurdles. Bridgeford and Wise will return to the track to compete in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, while Ariane Sloan (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) and Huma Husain (Springfield, Va.) will compete in the 800 meter run. School record holder and All-American Erin Crawford (Hillsborough, N.J.) will compete alongside regional qualifier Ayla Smith (Winchester, Va.) in the 400 meter hurdles. The 4X400 team of Crawford, Roberts, Ashe, and Smith will look to shave a couple of seconds off their season best time, as they toe the line in a very competitive relay field. Regional qualifier Meghan Briggs (Palmyra, Pa.) will compete with DeBartolo in the javelin throw on Sunday, while regional qualifier Alexa Manning (Coram, N.Y.) will compete in the shot put.
For the Virginia men, NCAA regional qualifier and school record holder Yemi Ayeni (Kendall Park, N.J.) gets the action started on Friday morning as he competes in the discus. In the distance events, All-ACC athlete Andrew Dumm (Fairfax, Va.) leads a strong contingent of 5K runners who are looking to post qualifying times for the regional meet. Ryan Foster (Stephens City, Va.), Trey Miller (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Taylor Smith (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) will all join Dumm. In the 10,000 meters, James Erickson (Detroit, Mich.) and Matt Gambale (Alexandria, Va.) will both look to run season-best times.
On Saturday, the Virginia men will compete in a number of events. David Lewis (Centreville, Va.) and Jeff McClurg (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) will open the day in the field by competing in the pole vault. The 4X100 relay team of Cedric Peerman (Gladys, Va.), Reuben Jones (Charlottesville, Va.), Brian Lee Jr. (Richmond, Va.) and Kellen Blassingame (Silver Spring, Md.) will look to post a regional qualifying time, while Jones returns later that day to compete in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Blassingame also will return to the track to compete in the 400 meter dash, an event in which he holds the school record. The men will also have three athletes in the 1,500 meter run with ACC 5K Champion Jan Foerster (Berlin, GER), Andrew Jesien (Bethesda, Md.) and Kevin Tschirhart (Northport, N.Y.) all looking to post season best times. Both Foerster and Jesien have already posted regional qualifying times, while Tschirhart sits .21 away from an NCAA regional berth. All-American Kevin McHale will compete in the 800 meters, while first-year Eric Pickle (Knoxville, Tenn.) joins Ayeni in the shot put on Sunday.
Both men’s and women’s teams will continue competition on May 25 and 26, where the NCAA East Regional meet will be held at the University of Florida in Gainseville. The Cavaliers have already qualified 12 athletes for the NCAA regional. Top five athletes in each event gain entry to the NCAA National meet held in Sacramento, Calif.