No. 1 Ranked Uceny, U.S. Indoor Champion Wright And Others To Compete

NEW YORK, January 31, 2012 - Morgan Uceny, Track & Field News' top-ranked women's 1500m runner in the world, will headline a stellar field of runners in the 800-meter run at the 105th Millrose Games February 11 at the Armory's New Balance Track & Field Center.

Uceny will compete against 2011 U.S. Indoor 800m champion Phoebe Wright; World Championships finalist Maggie Vessey of Santa Cruz, Calif.; and 2011 World Youth Champion Ajee Wilson, a New Jersey prep standout.

``I'm excited to get to race at the Armory again,'' Uceny said. ``I won a conference championship on this track and remember the track being fast and the energy high.''

Running for Cornell University at the 2007 Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at the Armory, Uceny won the 800m championship with a 2:04.88, more than six seconds in front of the rest of the field.

Uceny turned in a stellar 2011 campaign with a USA Outdoors Championship, three Samsung Diamond League victories and the fastest time of the year (4.00.06 in Brussels).

Last season in her Indoor debut, Wright won the U.S. National 800m title in 2.02.27. A former walk-on at the University of Tennessee, she won two NCAA Championships in the 800m and five Southeastern Conference titles (three 800m and a pair of distance medley relays).

The remainder of the women's 800m field includes: Latavia Thomas, Lea Wallace, Chunyu Wang of China and Aly Goldfarb of Israel.

Arguably the most memorable women's 800m event at Millrose took place in 1990. That's when Millrose Games' legend and New Jersey's Joetta Clark (now Joetta Clark-Diggs) upset East German and 1988 Olympic medalists Christine Wachtel and Sigrun Wodars before the delight of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden. Clark-Diggs competed in 23 Millrose Games even winning the 800m in her mid-30s in 2000. A four-time Olympian, Clark-Diggs is a member of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.

Morgan Uceny will face a major challenge in women's 800m at the Armory.  

Photo credit: Kim Spir / Armory Track

MORE ABOUT THE 105th MILLROSE GAMES: The country's top men's and women's track & field athletes along with the finest college and high school student-athletes will showcase their talents in the Millrose Games at the Armory.

The Armory previously announced 22-year-old Matthew Centrowitz, the 1,500m Bronze medal winner in the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, will be in this year's NYRR Wanamaker Mile. Other celebrated track & field representatives confirmed for the Millrose Games include 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winner LaShawn Merritt, who will compete in the 500m event, eight-time Wanamaker Mile champion Bernard Lagat will run in the 5,000m, and American record holder and 2008 Olympic Bronze medal winner David Oliver will be compete in the 60m Hurdles.

Three U.S. National records in the 5,000m event could fall and also the Millrose Games all-time mark. Lagat is attempting to break Galen Rupp's American Indoor record of 13:11.44. The other two American records at stake in the race will be the collegiate and high school marks as 11 ``super'' runners square off in one of the night's most anticipated events. A fourth record - the Millrose mark of 13:20.4 - could be eclipsed. Suleiman Nyambui of Tanzania established that record in 1981 when he edged Alberto Salazar (13:22.6) to set a World Indoor record.

Contender for an Olympic Gold medal and current Outdoor High Jump World Champion Jesse Williams joins 2008 Olympic Gold medalist Allyson Felix and World Champion/2008 USA Olympian Jennifer Simpson as confirmed athletes in the nation's premier indoor track & field event. Felix will compete in the Women's 60m event and Simpson will participate in the Millrose Games' first New York Road Runners' Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women along with two-time U.S. champion and 2008 Olympic finalist Shannon Rowbury.

Seven-time Wanamaker Mile champion and ``Chairman of the Boards'' Eamonn Coghlan returns to be part of this year's Millrose Games. Coghlan will be the honorary coach of Ireland's ``Dream Team'' from Dublin City University to compete in the  Byron Dyce College Men's Distance Medley Relay against national college power Villanova, coached by five-time Wanamaker Mile champion Marcus O'Sullivan of Ireland, and Duke, Providence, Iona, LaSalle, Albany and Brown.

CREDENTIALS FOR THE MILLROSE GAMES: Members of the media must go to http://www.armorytrack.com/credential/Create. Please fill out the form. Deadline to sign up for the Millrose Games is 5 p.m., Feb. 7.

ABOUT THE ARMORY FOUNDATION:

A New York City non-profit, the Armory will be the proud home of the Millrose Games beginning in 2012.  With more than 100 additional indoor track & field meets, the Armory will welcome over 125,000 individual athletes. Besides its many youth sports and educational programs, the Armory runs the Hispanic Games, the New Balance Games, and the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, the largest indoor college meet in the United States. The Armory is also the home to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.

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