Seven Individuals, Two Relays Qualify For Finals At IC4A, ECAC Meets

Saturday, March 7

Boston, Mass.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Seven Individuals, Two Relays Qualify For Finals At IC4A, ECAC Meets

3/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field

By: Duke Sports Information

BOSTON ? The Duke track & field squads saw strong first-day showings at the 2009 IC4A Championships on the men's side and ECAC Championships on the women's side, with the men qualifying two individuals and two relays for tomorrow's finals and the women qualifying five individuals during Saturday's preliminary races.

The men turned in a solid first day at the IC4As at Boston University's Track & Tennis Center, qualifying two individuals in the mile race as well as the men's DMR and 4x800-meter relays. Tomorrow will also see Duke represented in the finals-only competition of the 5K and the shot put.

“This was just a really good day for everybody,” said Director of Track & Field Norm Ogilvie. “Everybody competed really hard all-around. This might be the best overall day I've seen in my 19 years. We're looking forward to another good day on Sunday to close out the indoor season.”

In the men's mile, Cory Nanni won his heat of the event as he ran 4:10.67 to qualify for the finals, while Ryan McDermott clocked 4:08.77 in his heat, also qualifying.

The Duke distance medley relay team of Ken Sullivan, Caleb Duncanson, Stephen Clark, and Will Smith ran a 9:55.82 to come back tomorrow in the finals with eight other teams. Sullivan started it off with a lifetime best 1200 split of 3:02.8, followed by a 50.1 400m for Duncanson. Clark, a freshman, ran a lifetime best 1:53.7 in the 800 for the third leg, while Smith brought it in as the anchor leg in a 1600m time of 4:09.2, an eight-second improvement for him in the event.

The 4x800 team of Brendon Pierson, Chris Rowland, Sean Pat Oswald, and McDermott ran a seasonal-best time of 7:37.24 to qualify for tomorrow's finals. Pierson clocked a 1:57.0 to start things off, followed by Rowland's season-best split of 1:52.5 and Oswald's lifetime best of 1:54.4. McDermott doubled back from the mile to clock a 1:53.3 anchor leg for the Blue Devils.

Bo Waggoner put Duke on the scoreboard earlier in the day in the 3000 as he clocked his second-fastest time of his career in the event in 8:11.20 to score four points and take fifth overall. The finish earned him All-East honors, the first time a Duke athlete has done so in the 3,000 indoors.

On the women's side, the Blue Devils opened the ECAC meet strong as well, beginning with Karolina Haraldsdottir's All-East third-place showing in the pentathlon, as she scored 3,310 points to score six points for Duke.

Duke qualified two athletes in the women's mile, as Patricia Loughlin and Anna Farias-Eisner won their respective heats to advance to tomorrow's finals.

Duke then got three freshmen through in a strong 1K performance, as the rookie trio of Virgina Hine, Leslie Morrison, and Esther Vermeer all qualified for tomorrow. Hine's 2:51.02 places her fifth all-time at Duke.

In yesterday's action at the Arkansas Last Chance at the University of Arkansas, senior Jade Ellis continued his dominating indoor performance as he was a double-winner at the meet. Ellis captured both the long jump and triple jump titles in Fayetteville, Ark., setting another NCAA ?P' mark of 50-6 ?. His long jump distance of 24-9 ? was also a provisional standard and good for second-best all-time at Duke.

In the mile at the Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational this afternoon, senior Molly Lehman clocked a one-second personal-best time of 4:41.69 in a stacked field of athletes trying to notch NCAA qualifying marks in the event. Lehman was seventh in the race and moved up in the national ranking as she now sits on the bubble for the NCAA Championships, with the list of qualifiers to be announced Monday. She is now second all-time in the mile at Duke behind only Olympian Shannon Rowbury.

The ECAC and IC4A events will wrap up tomorrow in Boston. The NCAA Championships will take place next weekend, March 13-14, in College Station, Texas.

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