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Six Cavaliers Advance to NCAA Outdoor Championships

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Cavalier men finished competition at the NCAA East Preliminary round at the UK Outdoor Track & Field Facility on Friday (May 24) as six individuals in Shane Cohen, Jacob Lemmon, Gary Martin, Nate Mountain, Yasin Sado and Wes Porter join Will Anthony, John Fay and Janae Profit in punching their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Steeplechase Duo Eugene Bound
Yasin Sado and Nate Mountain led the way in the 3000m steeplechase finishing first and second in record setting fashion.
  • Sado crossed the line in a new personal-best 8:27.13 to win his heat and finish first overall followed by Mountain’s performance in the second heat with his time of 8:31.36.
  • Finishing 11 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, Sado set the facility record and NCAA East preliminary record.
  • The previous NCAA East preliminary record stood at 8:29.54 by Mason Ferlic of the University of Michigan in 2016 while the previous facility record was set back in 2017 by Louisville’s Edwin Kibichiy at 8:32.91.
  • Mountain entered the meet as the top seed in the east and ran the fastest time in the second heat of competition by four seconds.
  • The junior, Mountain qualified for his second consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships and will look to better his fourth-place finish from a year ago.
  • The senior in Sado qualified for his second outdoor championships and will look to improve upon his 14th place finish from 2022.

Dynamic Duo of Martin and Porter Advance
The dynamic duo of Gary Martin and Wes Porter booked their tickets to Eugene running through the line side by side in t.he 1500m
  • Martin and Porter found themselves in the same quarterfinal heat for which the duo finished second and third.
  • Less than a second behind ACC foe, North Carolina’s Ethan Strand, Martin ran a smart race to cross the line in 3:45.54 for second.
  • Porter followed his teammate Martin, crossing the line in 3:45.73 to take third place in the second heat.
  • Both Martin and Porter will make their NCAA Outdoor Championships debut in Eugene, Ore.

Shane Cohen Makes Statement
Shane Cohen made a statement with his blistering run in the men’s 800m to punch his ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
  • Cohen executed his race from the back of the pack as he so often does, before surging to the front to cross the line in second place and secure an automatic qualifying position.
  • The senior ran a new personal-best 1:45.36 to move up to third all-time in Virginia history posting nearly even splits going 52.49 and 52.88 for 400-meter laps.
  • No stranger to NCAA competition, Cohen has twice finished top-ten in the 800m at the Division II NCAA Championships.
  • Cohen will join the lineage of 800m runners to dawn the Virginia singlet at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Lemmon Punches Ticket to Eugene
Jacob Lemmon booked his ticket to his third NCAA Outdoor Championships after placing second overall in the men’s discus.
  • The two time All-American entered the East preliminaries as the eighth seed in search of one of the coveted 12 qualifying positions.
  • On his second throw of the competition, Lemmon threw 59.51m/195-3 to finish runner-up to South Alabama’s Francois Prinsloo.
  • The senior bettered his finish at the preliminary round after a third-place finish with a mark of 58.19m/190-11 two years ago.
  • Lemmon missed out on last year’s championships and will look for a higher spot on the podium at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships after finishing fifth (57.78m/189-7) in 2021 and 15th (56.77m/186-3) in 2022.

Other performances:
  • After weather postponed the event by a day, Samantha Romano cleared 4.10m/13-5.25 on her first attempt to finish 20th in the women’s pole vault.
  • In the faster of the two heats, James Donahue finished nineth clocking 3:41.92 in the men’s 1500m to just miss earning a qualifying spot by two places.
  • Alex Sherman capped off his season in the quarterfinals of the men’s 400m hurdles crossing the line in 50.34 to finish 14th overall.
  • In the men’s 5000m, Justin Wachtel battled to the line running 14:31.10 to finish 37th overall.
Up Next:
The Cavalier women resume their competition as the East preliminary comes to a close tomorrow (May 25). Competition will begin with Janae Profit at 1 p.m. in the women’s discus.

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