// FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE //

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Track and Field Contact: Tom Fenstermaker

 

Cavaliers Head to NCAA East Preliminaries Thursday

Meet runs May 24-26 in Jacksonville, Fla.

 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field team travels south to the NCAA East Preliminaries at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday through Saturday (May 24-26). Twenty-nine Cavaliers, 18 men and 11 women, will be competing in 21 events.

 

Live results and a webcast of the meet will be available and linked through VirginiaSports.com. Each individual event will have 48 student-athletes competing, while the relay events have 24 schools in action. The field will be narrowed down to the top 12, who will move on to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa on June 6-9.

 

Senior Andy Fahringer (Whitehall, Pa.) will start off the competition in the menÂ’s javelin on Thursday at 11 a.m. At 1 p.m., freshman Nick Vena (Morristown, N.J.) will take part in the menÂ’s discus. Vena was ACC Champion in both the discus and the shot put.

 

At 4:30 p.m., the running events begin with the menÂ’s 400-meter hurdles, in which freshman Devin Brewer (Dumfries, Va.) will compete. At the same time, sophomore Abbey Karin (Byfield, Mass.) will take part in the womenÂ’s javelin.

 

An hour later, the menÂ’s 1,500 meters will see three Cavalier juniors compete, including Taylor Gilland (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Brett Johnson (Ocean City, N.J.) and Patrick Todd (Highland Park, Texas). Junior Morgane Gay (Bethesda, Md.) will run in the womenÂ’s 1,500 meters at 6 p.m.

 

Freshman Jordan Lavender (Nashville, Tenn.) is scheduled to run the womenÂ’s 400 meters at 7:45 p.m., while ACC Champion senior Lance Roller (Cortland Manor, N.Y.) and sophomore Anthony Kostelac (Charlottesville, Va.) will compete in the menÂ’s 800 meters at 8:10 p.m.

 

In the final events of the first day, junior Sean Keveren (Brentwood, Tenn.) and senior Catherine White (Roanoke, Va.) will run in the menÂ’s and womenÂ’s 10,000 meters at 9 and 9:40 p.m., respectively.

 

On Friday, senior Vincenzo Chiariello (Staten Island, N.Y.) starts off the day with the menÂ’s hammer at 10 a.m., while classmate and ACC Champ Erin Wykoff (St. Jacob, Ill.) takes part in the womenÂ’s discus at 3 p.m.

 

At 4:30 p.m., ACC Champion senior Marcus Robinson (Richmond, Va.) and freshman Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) will compete in the triple jump and junior Pearl Bickersteth (Dumfries, Va.) and sophomore Emily Kianka (Pennington, N.J.) will be in action in the womenÂ’s high jump at 5 p.m.

 

Sophomore Bryan Lewis (Roanoke, Va.) will run in the menÂ’s 3,000-meter steeplechase at 9 p.m.

 

On Sunday, senior Maureen Laffan (Toms River, N.J.) will begin the Cavalier action at 2 p.m., in the womenÂ’s hammer throw, while junior Dallas Rose (Pearland, Texas) will compete in the womenÂ’s high jump at 4:30 p.m. Vena will compete in his second event of the competition, the menÂ’s shot put, at 5 p.m.

 

In the running events, Keveren will double up and run with sophomore Thomas Porter (Fredericksburg, Va.) and freshman Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.) in the menÂ’s 5,000 meters at 8:05 p.m. In the womenÂ’s 5k, freshmen Chelsea Ley (Woolwich Township, N.J.) and Kathleen Stevens (Blacksburg, Va.) will compete at 8:45 p.m.

 

In the final action for Virginia at the meet, the menÂ’s 4x400m relay will run at 9:25 p.m. The team of senior Kevin Anding (Houston, Texas), sophomore Ozzie Bryan (Philadelphia, Pa.), Roller and freshman Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.) won the ACC title.