Collins to Compete at Junior World Championships in Poland

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia freshman Ryan Collins will be competing in the 5,000m at the Junior World Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Sunday. Collins made the 19-and-under Team USA roster for the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships by taking second at the 2008 USA Junior Track & Field Championships in June in Columbus, Ohio.

The Mansfield, Mass., native finished as the runner-up at the junior national meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State in 14:46.50 to earn a spot on the Team USA roster. The first-year will be joined in the men’s 5K by Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz, who finished just two seconds ahead of Collins, in 14:44.67, to win the race.

Collins and Centrowitz are two Americans among 79 that will represent the United States in Poland. The men’s 5,000m race is scheduled for Sunday.

Collins joins classmate Emil Heineking as Cavalier rookies who have represented Virginia at the international level this year, as Heineking raced in the junior men’s race of the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland at the end of March.