Mihaljevic and Rose Advance on Final Day of NCAA East Preliminaries

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May 31, 2014

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams concluded competition at the 2014 NCAA East Preliminary Rounds Saturday at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida. Day three of the meet saw Cavaliers advance to the NCAA Championships in two more events.

Filip Mihaljevic (Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina) advanced in the men’s discus and Dallas Rose (Pearland, Texas) advanced in the women’s triple jump to give Virginia a total of seven athletes in seven events at the NCAA Championship meet, which will be held June 11-14 at the University of Oregon. The top 12 in each event at the NCAA East Preliminaries advanced to compete in Eugene.

On the first two days of the meet, Virginia had six qualifiers. Mihaljevic qualified 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. Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.) advanced in the men’s 3000m steeplechase and Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) advanced in the men’s triple jump on day two.

“Anytime can almost double your number of NCAA qualifiers from one year to the next, it is a big positive for the program,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “We had a number of individuals step up on a last jump or last throw to put themselves in position. We have to continue to get better, but this meet was a big step in the right direction.”

Rose advanced in the women’s triple jump with a fifth place finish. After five jumps, she was in 11th place, but had a PR of 43-3.75 on her final attempt to finish fifth and qualify for Oregon. The jump was just 0.5″ shy of the school record 43-4.25 of Tomika Ferguson, set in 2007.

“Dallas stepped up when she needed to on the final jump,” said Fetzer. “To be in 14th place after four jumps and eventually move up to first is fantastic. That is a senior captain rising to the occasion and making the most of the opportunity.”

Mihaljevic advanced to Oregon in his second event, finishing seventh in the discus with a throw of 195-10. After qualifying Thursday in the shot put, he becomes the first Cavalier male to qualify for two individual events at the same NCAA Championship meet. Overall, the last Virginia athlete to accomplish the feat was Billie-Jo Grant, who advanced to the women’s shot put and discus in 2006.

Virginia also competed in three other events on Friday. Cleo Boyd (Kingston, Ontario) was 15th in her heat and 31st overall in the women’s 5000m, crossing in a time of 16:43.45, but did not advance. Maria Hauger (Shakopee, Minn.) was scheduled to run in the event, but was a medical scratch.

Virginia’s women’s 4x400m relay team finished fifth in its heat and 17th overall, but did not advance. The team of Chimere Ezumah (Gardena, Calif.), Jordan Lavender (Nashville, Tenn.), Peyton Chaney (Belleville, Ill.) and Andrea Wright (Chesapeake, Va.) crossed in a time of 3:36.73.

The women’s 4x100m relay team of Chaney, Wright, McKenzie and Lavender did not finish after missing a handoff.