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Karin, Amirault and Strehler Advance to NCAA Championships
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May 25, 2013
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams had three athletes qualify for the NCAA Track and Field Championships during the final day of the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds at Aggie Stadium on the campus of North Carolina A&T. Abbey Karin, Barbara Strehler and Mark Amirault will all represent the Cavaliers at next month’s meet in Eugene, Ore., as will Thomas Porter who qualified on Thursday.
“It definitely an up-and-down meet for us overall,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “It was great to see us end on a positive note. Those last two events, the men’s and women’s 5K, it was phenomenal to see Barbara and Mark qualify. Those two have worked really hard and for them to end our meet with successful runs should give us momentum going into nationals with them, and good momentum going into the future for the program.”
Karin advanced to the NCAA Championships with a ninth place finish in the women’s javelin. She threw 47.60m (156’2″) to qualify for the NCAA meet for the first time in her career.
Strehler was the 12th and final qualifier in the women’s 5000m as she set a PR of 16:07.70, the fourth best time in school history. She was seventh in the first heat and her time was good enough to be one of the two at-large qualifiers among runners not in the top five of each heat. It is her first trip to the NCAA Championships.
Amirault was second in his heat of the men’s 5000m to become an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships. He ran a time of 14:00.54, as he moved from seventh to second during the final lap of the race. It is his first NCAA Championship appearance as a Cavalier, and second overall, having earned second-team All-American honors in the 5000m at Princeton in 2011.
Porter also competed in the 5000m on Saturday, finishing 17th in his heat in a time of 14:32.89. Although he didn’t advance in the event, he qualified for the NCAA Championships on Thursday by finishing seventh in the 10000m.
Ryan Satchell had a jump of 14.93m (48’11.75″) in the men’s triple jump, which placed him 22nd. Although it was improvement from his No. 32 seed, it wasn’t enough to crack the top 16 to make the finals.
Virginia had a pair of runners in the quarterfinals of the 1500m after they advanced from the first round on Thursday, but neither were able to advance to Oregon. Taylor Gilland was seventh in his heat of the men’s 1500m in a time of 3:49.13. Vicky Fouhy was ninth in her heat of the women’s 1500m in a time of 4:22.92.
The NCAA Championships will be held June 5-8 on the campus of the University of Oregon.