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Cavaliers Set for Last Chance Meets
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia track and field team will head to three different competition sites this weekend to compete one last time in an attempt to qualify for the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Virginia’s men’s distance medley relay and redshirt junior All-American Ryan Collins will head to Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational to race on Friday, while the women’s DMR squad will head to New York City for Columbia’s Last Chance meet at the Armory. On Saturday, senior Adams Abdulrazaaq and freshman Aaron Shepperd will compete in the 60m hurdles at Virginia Tech’s Final Qualifier. Results for all competitions can be found at VirginiaSports.com.
Collins will open competition Friday night at the Alex Wilson Invitational by running the 5000m at 7:25 p.m. Collins won his third-straight ACC Championship in the event last weekend to become first person to win three-consecutive conference titles in the 5k. His season-best time of 13:58.54, ran at the Husky Classic, ranks 35th nationally this year.
UVa’s men’s distance medley relay team of sophomore Brett Johnson, junior Kevin Anding, freshman Anthony Kostelac and redshirt junior Emil Heineking will compete Friday night at Notre Dame, toeing the line at 8 p.m. Virginia’s relay is currently ranked 13th nationally with a season-best time of 9:36.41.
On the women’s side, Virginia’s distance medley relay of junior Morgane Gay, redshirt senior Ayla Smith, senior Lyndsay Harper and redshirt senior Stephanie Garcia will race at 7:30 p.m., at the Armory. The Cavaliers’ relay is ranked 18th nationally with a school record time of 11:14.15 from ACCs last weekend.
Saturday will feature Abdulrazaaq and Shepperd in the hurdles at Virginia Tech. The preliminary rounds are scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m., with the second round at 1:05 p.m. Finals are slated for 2:10 p.m. Abdulrazaaq, the school record holder in the 60m hurdles, ran a personal-best 7.75 at the Hokie Invitational earlier this year. The ACC runner-up is tied for 11th nationally in the event.
Shepperd ran a personal-best 8.06 in the preliminary round of the hurdles at ACCs last weekend to advance to the finals. The only freshman to qualify for the finals, Shepperd shaved another .03 seconds off his time and finished seventh overall in 8.03.
The field for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships will be set and announced the evening of Monday, March 7. The national meet will be held at Texas A&M on March 11-12.