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Virginia to Send 17 Athletes to NCAA East Preliminary Round
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May 16, 2013
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams had 17 athletes selected to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Round, the NCAA announced on Thursday. The preliminary round will be held May 23-25 at the Irwin Belk Track inside of Aggie Stadium on the campus of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.
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 Eugene, Ore., on June 5-8.
Virginia will have nine women and eight men competing in 16 events at the preliminary meet. Twelve of the 17 athletes have competed in a NCAA preliminary meet previously in their career.
The list of Cavaliers selected to compete is highlighted by a pair of 2013 ACC Champions, Catherine White in the women’s 10,000m and Jordan Lavender in the women’s 400m. White enters the meet with the best time in the region in the 10,000m, while Lavender is seeded 11th in the 400m.
Lavender is one of three Cavaliers who will compete in two events at the meet, as she was also selected in the 200m. Thomas Porter will compete in the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m, while Barbara Strehler will compete in both the 5,000m and 10,000m on the women’s side.
In addition to White in the 10000m, the Cavaliers have four athletes who are among the top 10 seeds at the meet. Abbey Karin is seeded sixth in the women’s javelin, Anthony Kostelac is seeded sixth in the men’s 800m, Vicky Fouhy is seeded eighth in the women’s 1,500m and Moira Cronin is seeded ninth in the women’s high jump.
In the men’s running events, Mark Amirault will join Porter in the 5,000m. Payton Hazzard will compete in the 400m, while Brandon Burton was selected in the 400m hurdles. For the second consecutive year, Taylor Gilland will run the 1,500m at the meet, and Colin Mearns will compete in the 3,000m steeplechase. Ryan Satchell will represent the Cavalier field event athletes as he earned a place in the meet in the triple jump for the second straight year.
In the women’s running events, Kathleen Stevens joins Strehler in the 5,000m and Vanessa Fabrizio was selected in the 800m. The Cavaliers also have two competitors in the high jump as Pearl Bickersteth joins Cronin.