Cavaliers Ready for NCAA East Preliminaries

LEXINGTON, KY. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to send 29 individual athletes (15 men, 14 women) and 2 relay squads to the NCAA East Preliminary hosted by the University of Kentucky. The top 12 finishers in each event will advance to the NCAA Championships. The men’s events will take place on Wednesday (May 22) and Friday (May 24) while the women’s competition will be held on Thursday (May 23) and Saturday (May 25).

How To Follow
Live coverage of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s East Preliminary Round will be streamed live each day via ESPN+. Links to the ESPN+ live stream, live stats and the overall meet schedule are available at VirginiaSports.com. Updates will also be posted to the team’s official Twitter account (@UVAtfcc).
Meet Schedule
Live Results
Live Stream

Hoos in the Nation’s Top-25
Women:

Men:

High Seeds
The Cavalier men will have 15 competitors entered in the competition with eight seeded in the top-ten in their respective events. Virginia’s highest-seeded competitors include Will Anthony (4th, 10,000m), Shane Cohen (10th, 800m), John Fay (7th, Hammer), Jacob Lemmon (8th, Discus), Nate Mountain (1st, 3000m Steeplechase), Gary Martin (3rd, 1500m), Wes Porter (8th, 1500m) and Yasin Sado (4th, 3000m Steeplechase).

The Cavalier women will have 14 individuals entered as well as both the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relay teams. Virginia’s highest-seeded competitors are Margot Appleton (3rd, 5000m) and Samantha Romano (5th, Pole Vault).

Seeking a Return Trip
Five Cavaliers enter the meet once again seeking to punch their ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Those athletes include Margot Appleton, Jacob Lemmon, Nate Mountain, Conor Murphy and Yasin Sado. Three Cavaliers in Lemmon (Discus), Mountain (3000mSC) and Sado (3000mSC) will contest the same events for which they have competed previously at the championships. Appleton and Murphy secure a trip to their second consecutive championships in different events than last year. Appleton will trade the 1500m for the 5000m while Murphy will go from the 800m to the 1500m in Lexington.

Steeplechase Stars
The dynamic duo of Cavalier steeplechasers Nate Mountain and Yasin Sado look to qualify for the NCAA Championships after winning gold and silver to score a combined 18 points at the ACC Outdoor Championships two weeks prior. Mountain earned back-to-back ACC Outdoor gold medals while leading the charge for Virginia to go 1-2 in the event for the second straight year. He enters the competition in Lexington as the top seed with his time of 8:20.68 from the 2024 Virginia Challenge. The junior looks to punch his ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the second time after winning the East Preliminary in 8:37.40 and going on to earned first-team All-American honors with a fourth-place finish in a time of 8:35.99 in Austin, Texas just one year ago.

The current four seed in Sado enters the competition with his time of 8:30.78 from two weeks ago at the 2024 ACC Outdoor Championships in Atlanta, Ga. Last season, Sado ran 9:01.57 to finish 24^th and miss qualifying for the championships. The senior looks to qualify for his second outdoor NCAA meet as he punched his ticket in 2022 running 8:39.68 at the East Preliminary to finish 8th overall. Sado earned second-team All-American status in 2022 when he finished 14^th in 8:41.63.

1500m Quartet
Virginia is set to have four men in the 1500m first round including Gary Martin, Wes Porter, James Donahue and Conor Murphy. All four Cavaliers are seeded within the top-26 entered in the competition with Martin and Porter inside the top-ten at third and eighth. Martin and Porter come off a thrilling race at the ACC Outdoor Championships where the duo earned the silver and bronze medals to tally 14 points for the team. Just off their personal-bests, Martin crossed the line in 3:40.87 just ahead of Porter’s 3:42.14 to secure their spot on the podium.

Entering the competition, Martin ranks third with his school record time of 3:37.66 while Porter is ranked eighth with his time of 3:39.54. Donahue and Murphy round out the quartet of Cavaliers toeing the line as Donahue ranks 12^th (3:40.27) and Murphy 26^th (3:40.88) respectively. Donahue also comes off competing in the 1500m final at the ACC Outdoor Championships where he finished nineth (3:44.60) overall. Virginia has never seen a national title in the event with the most recent Virginia competitor at the NCAA Championships being Mike Marsella who finished 11^th in 3:52.39 back in 2018.

Appleton’s Dominance
The back-to-back ACC Outdoor Championships gold medalist Margot Appleton looks to qualify for her second consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships. Last season, Appleton finished sixth at the NCAA East Preliminary meet in a time of 4:14.54 to qualify for her first outdoor national championship where she finished third in the final clocking 4:09.83 for the highest finish by a Virginia woman in the event. Previously, the highest finish was back in 1983 when Jill Haworth finished fourth in 4:16.89.

Appleton comes off a thrilling weekend at the outdoor conference championships where the junior won gold in the 1500m just hours before finishing third in the 5000m crossing the line in 15:36.95. Carrying the momentum from Atlanta, Ga. to Lexington, Ky. Appleton looks to punch her ticket this time in the 5000m. The junior enters the event as the third seed with her school record time of 15:18.21 from the 2024 Raleigh Relays.

Noting the Cavaliers
Jacob Lemmon looks to make his third trip in four years to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Lemmon, the 2024 ACC silver medalist in the discus throw, missed out on last year’s championships due to injury. Making the trip in 2021 and 2022, Lemmon looks to be back in the NCAA Championships ring in 2024. On the other hand, Will Anthony will make his first appearance at the East Preliminary meet and look to qualify through to his first NCAA Outdoor Championships. Anthony enters the competition ranked fourth in the men’s 10,000m with his school record time of 28:21.93 from the 2024 Raleigh Relays. The New Zealand native comes off earning his first outdoor first-team All-ACC honors with his second-place finish in the 10,000m (29:18.80) and third-place finish in the 5000m (13:40.17). On the women’s side, fifth seed Samantha Romano looks to make waves in the women’s pole vault competition. Romano earned a spot at last season’s East Preliminary round where she finished 33^rd clearing 3.97m/13-0.25. The sophomore will look to make her first NCAA Outdoor appearance and become only just the second Cavalier to qualify in the event alongside Bridget Guy (2018, 2019).

Complete List of Virginia Entries
Men

Women

On the Horizon:
The top 12 competitors from each individual event and the top 12 teams from each relay event advance from each first round to compete in the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships held on June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon.