King and Satchell Advance on Day Two of NCAA East Preliminaries

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May 30, 2014

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams continued competition at the 2014 NCAA East Preliminary Rounds Friday at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida. Day two of the meet for the Cavaliers was highlighted by two more Cavaliers advancing to the NCAA Championships, Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.) in the men’s steeplechase and Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) in the men’s triple jump.

The top 12 finishers from each event at the meet advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held June 11-14 at the University of Oregon.

King and Satchell became the fifth and sixth Virginia athletes to advance to Oregon, joining four Cavaliers who qualified Thursday. Filip Mihaljevic (Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina) advanced in the men’s shot put, Jen Flack (Alexandria, Va.) advanced in the women’s 10000m and both Thomas Porter (Fredericksburg, Va.) and Adam Visokay (Ruckersville, Va.) advanced in the men’s 10000m during day one of the competition.

King closed out the day for the Cavaliers by advancing to Oregon in the steeplechase. He automatically qualified by finishing second in his heat, posting a PR of 8:41.53, the fourth-best time in school history. It was the third-best overall time among the three heats.

“Kyle executed the game plan perfectly,” said assistant coach Pete Watson. “He went out in front and got the pace going. He got over the barriers and was safe. He didn’t need to waste a lot on the last lap, just finish in the top three. He was top three, ran a PR and advanced to the finals. It was a good performance.”

Satchell finished ninth in the men’s triple jump competition with a PR of 51-11.75, the fourth best mark in school history. That mark came on his first jump of the day as he broke his previous PR by over five inches.

“I am really proud of Ryan as he competed at a very high level this evening,” said assistant coach Mario Wilson. “He has trained really hard this year and is seeing the benefits of that at this point. He had a PR jump, but I think he has more in the tank. We are excited for him to move on to the finals.”

The three Cavaliers who advanced from first round races Thursday to quarterfinal races on Friday did not advance to Oregon. Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.) finished fifth in his heat of the men’s 400m with a time of 46.50. His time ranked 16th overall in the quarterfinals, which did not advance him to Eugene. Jordan Lavender (Nashville, Tenn.) ran 53.17 in the women’s 400m quarterfinals, but she finished fifth in her heat and 14th overall, 0.12 seconds off the final qualifying spot. Vanessa Fabrizio (Denver, Colo.) was eighth in her heat and 21st overall in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:12.10.

The meet concludes Saturday with the Cavaliers competing in five events. Mihaljevic will try to qualify in a second event as he competes in the discus. Dallas Rose (Pearland, Texas) will compete in the women’s triple jump and Cleo Boyd (Kingston, Ontario) will compete in the women’s 5000m. Virginia will also have teams in both the women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays.