CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-29 members of the Virginia track and field program have been selected to be participants in the NCAA East Preliminary Round, the NCAA announced Thursday (May 17). The preliminary round will be held at the Hodges Stadium Track and Field Facility in Jacksonville, Fla., May 24-26.

Each individual event (excluding the heptathlon and decathlon) will have 48 competitors, while relays will have 24 teams. The top 12 from every event will move on to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 6-9.

Virginia’s 18 men and 11 women will compete for the Cavaliers. Amongst the field, six 2012 ACC Outdoor Champions will compete for the Cavaliers, including senior Lance Roller (Cortland Manor, N.Y.), who is ranked second on the men’s performance list in the 800 meters with a time of 1:47.82.

Freshman Nick Vena (Morristown, N.J.), who was named the Men’s Most Outstanding Field Performer at the ACC outdoor meet, ranks third in the shot put with a mark of 19.51m (64′ 0.25″), a school record, and 12th in the discus with a distance of 54.84m (179′ 11″). Vena earned second-team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

Senior Marcus Robinson (Richmond, Va.) captured the ACC title in the triple jump with an outdoor school-record mark of 16.40m (53′ 9.75″) and is seeded third. Robinson placed fifth in the triple jump at the NCAA indoor meet.

Two women’s ACC Champions, seniors Catherine White (Roanoke, Va.) and Erin Wykoff (St. Jacob, Ill.), are both ranked in 10th in the 10,000 meters (33:51.23) and discus (53.78m (176′ 5″), respectively. Wykoff earned second-team All-America honors last year in the discus.

The ACC Champion men’s 4×400-meter relay of senior Kevin Anding (Houston, Texas), sophomore Ozzie Bryan (Philadelphia, Pa.), Roller and freshman Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.) made the field of 24 teams with a time of 3:08.80.

Other top-10 rankings include senior Andy Fahringer (Whitehall, Pa.), who is fourth in the men’s javelin with a mark of 75.19m (246′ 8″), junior Pearl Bickersteth (Dumfries, Va.), who is seeded in a tie for fifth in the women’s high jump with a height of 1.83m (6′ 0″), and junior Morgane Gay (Bethesda, Md.), who is sixth on the women’s 1500 chart with a time of 4:14.38.

Both Fahringer and Gay’s marks were school records set at last week’s Virginia Challenge at Lannigan Field. Gay finished fifth in the mile at the national meet in March and placed seventh in the 1500 at last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. Fahringer earned second-team All-America honors last year in the javelin.

In the men’s running events, sophomore Anthony Kostelac (Charlottesville, Va.) will join Roller in the 800 meters, while juniors Patrick Todd (Highland Park, Texas), Brett Johnson (Ocean City, N.J.) and Taylor Gilland (Chapel Hill, N.C.) will run in the 1,500 meters. Johnson was a second-team All-American in the event a year ago.

Fellow junior Sean Keveren (Brentwood, Tenn.), freshman Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.) and sophomore Thomas Porter (Fredericksburg, Va.) have earned spots in the 5,000 meters, while sophomore Bryan Lewis (Roanoke, Va.) and freshman Devin Brewer (Dumfries, Va.) gained berths in the 3,000 steeplechase and 400-meter hurdles, respectively.

In the men’s field events, senior Vincenzo Chiariello (Staten Island, N.Y.) will compete in the hammer throw, an event he holds the school record in (63.16m – 207′ 3″). Freshman Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) will join Robinson in the triple jump.

On the women’s running side, redshirt freshman Chelsea Ley (Woolwich Township, N.J.) will compete in the 5,000 meters alongside redshirt freshman Kathleen Stevens (Blacksburg, Va.). Freshman Jordan Lavender (Nashville, Tenn.) will run in the 400 meters.

In the women’s field events, senior Maureen Laffan (Toms River, N.J.) has earned a berth in the hammer throw, which she has the school record (59.62m – 195′ 7″), and indoor second-team All-American Dallas Rose (Pearland, Texas) will compete in the triple jump.

Sophomore Emily Kianka (Pennington, N.J.) will join Bickersteth in the high jump, while sophomore Abbey Karin (Byfield, Mass.) has been selected to compete in the javelin.