Duke Heads To Arkansas For Tyson Invitational

DURHAM, N.C. - The Duke Track and Field team heads to the prestigious Tyson Invitational this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., on the campus of the University of Arkansas. The meet will be held Friday and Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center. It marks the sixth of 19 consecutive weekends with a meet for Duke Track and Field. Results for the Tyson meet will be available on www.flashresults.com.

In other running action, freshmen Christy Adamyk and Emily Schwitzer will compete in the USATF Junior Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning in San Diego, Calif.

Women’s: On the women’s side, 10 Blue Devils will be competing throughout the weekend in seven different events at Arkansas.

Featured Events: Five women will attempt to qualify for the ECAC’s on Friday morning in the mile run while junior Molly Lehman will compete in the championship mile on Friday afternoon as she tries to hit the NCAA provisional mark. Lehman already qualified for the ECAC’s with a 4:51.04 clocking earlier this season. The NCAA provisional standard is 4:48.00 and the ECAC time is 5:01.14. The quintet aiming for the latter are sophomore Emily Sherrard, junior Patricia Loughlin, sophomore Katie Doswell, senior captain Anna Farias-Eisner and junior Jessica Davlin.

On Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, Davlin, Doswell, freshmen Devotia Moore, junior captain Michelle Seibert and senior captain Allison Stankavage will run in the 800m. All are looking to hit the ECAC qualifying mark of 2:14.40. Stankavage has already qualified for the ECAC’s in the 500m and Moore just missed ECAC’s in the 800m with a 2:15.41 clocking last week.

At the USATF Junior Cross Country Championships, the top six finishers will qualify to represent the U.S. at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Saturday, March 30. Both competitions are 6,000km races. Duke has had three athletes qualify for the U.S. team at the World Cross Country meet-- Sheela Agrawal in 2000, Clara Horowitz in 2003 and Maddie McKeever in 2006. Horowitz was the U.S. Junior Champion when she competed.

Star To Watch: In the pole vault on Saturday morning, the Blue Devils will feature freshman Amy Fryt. Fryt reached 11’-7.75” at the Carolina Classic on Feb. 2 and will look to reach the ECAC qualifying mark of 11’-9.73.” Her performance in that meet also tied her for the fifth-best indoor pole vault in school history.

Men’s: On the men’s side, there will be seven competitors in Fayetteville in six different events.

Featured Event: Seniors Matt Danforth and Peter Lewellen will hit the track in the 400m on Friday afternoon. Both are looking for the IC4A qualifying time of 49.20 and rank second and third, respectively, in the Duke records in the event with times of 49.05 and 49.14 in 2007.

Star To Watch: On Friday morning at Arkansas, sophomore Sid Palas will go to work in the pole vault. He has already reached a personal best of 15’-7.0” this season will try to stretch that to 15’-9.0” in order to qualify for the IC4A Championships.

A Look Ahead: The Duke Indoor Track and Field Team will next compete Feb. 22 and 23 at the Virginia Tech Challenge in Blacksburg, Va.

-d-u-k-e-

Duke Heads To Arkansas For Tyson Invitational

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