Merber, Sheffey, Muhammad move on
By Jack Pfeifer
Mike Mulqueen’s Scarlet Knights recorded a raft of lifetime bests and school records at the NCAA Division I East Regional meet over the weekend in Greensboro, N.C., as his Rutgers men’s team qualified four individuals and a 4x4 team to the national championship finals. Those will be held June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore.
Meanwhile John Moon’s Seton Hall squad, facing its final days, was able to advance both its men’s and women’s 4x4 teams, giving the squad an appropriate but bitterwsweet sendoff.
The Columbia women’s 4x4 team, hopeful of advancing as well, fell well short, but the Lions did advance miler Kyle Merber and quartermiler Sharay Hale, while St. John’s qualified highjumper Priscilla Frederick, Iona is sending miler Heidi Gregson, and Stony Brook qualified the Van Dalen sisters.
In the West Regional, in Austin, Texas, hurdlers Dalilah Muhammad of USC and Lindsay Rowe of UCLA, former teammates at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens, both advanced to the national championships. Muhammad was 3rd at the NCAA meet a year ago as a freshman. New York native Nicole Blood (Saratoga Springs), in her senior season for the Oregon Ducks, qualified in both the 5,000 and 10,000, as she will double in an attempt to help Oregon compete for the national team championship. That race appears to be a two-team duel between the Ducks and Texas A&M.
The men’s race is shaping up as a threw-way battle among Oregon, A&M and Florida. Matthew Centrowitz, who won Penn Relays titles while in high school in Maryland and whose father, Matt, ran for Power Memorial in New York City, advanced in the 1,500 for the Ducks. He will be joined in that race by teammate and 2008 Olympian Andrew Wheating; Wheating is also in the 800. The Virginia freshman Robby Andrews, from Manalapan, N.J., who upset Wheating by .01 in the NCAA indoor championships in March, also advanced in the 800, setting up a possible rematch in Eugene, Wheating’s home turf.
The men’s 800 is full of runners from the New York area. Andrews’s teammate at UVA, the sophomore Lance Roller (Lakeland Panas, N.Y.), advanced with a lifetime best, 1:47.43, while freshman Sadiki White (Allentown, N.J.), also moved on, running a PR for LSU, 1:47.57. They are joined by UConn teammates Mike Rutt (1:46.63) and Brian Gagnon (1:46.99). Wheating ran 1:46 to win his quarterfinal race in Austin, and he will be joined in Eugene by two other Ducks, Travis Thompson and Elijah Greer. In the 1,500, Oregon advanced Wheating, Centrowitz and A.J. Acosta, but freshman Mac Fleet, the NCAA indoor runnerup, was eliminated.
Rutgers
Meantime, in the East, Rutgers was having a tremendous three days in the Regional at North Carolina A&T. Bruce Owens, a senior from Deptford who transferred from Bowie State, ran a PR 20.90 in the 200 prelims, then took that down to 20.64 in finishing 4th in his quarterfinal. Twelve competitors qualified in each event from each Regional.
Aaron Younger, junior from Delsea, lowered his PR in the 400 hurdles to 50.65, breaking the school record of 50.94 set 41 years ago by John Hanley. His teammate and fellow intermediate hurdler Steve Swern was eliminated in the preliminary round.
Another Rutgers hurdler, Kyle Grady, also advanced. Grady, a senior from East Brunswick, ran a lifetime-best 13.89 in the high-hurdle prelims, then lowered that to 13.82 in the quarterfinals. The final Rutgers individual qualifier is Jeremy Pennino, senior from Watchung, who placed 11th in the javelin with a PR throw of 219-9.
In the 4x4, Rutgers finished with the 8th-best time, the foursome of Owens, Swern, Robertson and Younger running 3:06.13, breaking the school record of 3:07.7 set 29 years ago. Younger anchored in 45.5.
NY-NJ athletes around the country
New York City hurdlers Muhammad and Rowe were not the only athletes from the New York area who advanced over the weekend. At the East Regional, Brittany Sheffey, a sophomore at Tennessee from Bellport, ran a PR 4:18.74 to move on in the 1,500, and another Long Islander, Charlene Lipsey of Hempstead, ran a PR 2:05.34 for LSU in the 8.
Two former classmates from Lakewood, N.J., Shavon Greaves (Penn State) and Emanuel Mayers (Mississippi State), advanced out of the East. Greaves made it in the 100, 200 and could run both relays; Mayers ran 49.86 in the 400 hurdles and also could see relay duty. Yet another Lakewood alum, DeAnne Hahn, fell short in the women’s hammer for Minnesota.
Also in the West, Ashlea McLaughlin (Uniondale) just missed in the 400, running 53.40 and finishing 13th, but she did anchor the Bruins’ 4x4 team, which qualified. One of her teammates on the men’s squad, Casey DiCesare (Irvington, NY), failed to qualify for UCLA in the pole vault, clearing 16-8 ¾. Devon Bond (Trenton, NJ) made it in the triple jump for Texas/San Antonio, jumping 51-11, but missed in the high jump. In the men’s 400 in Austin, Clemore Henry (Transit Tech, Brooklyn) fell short in the 400 but advanced as a member of the Horned Frogs’ 4x400.
East Regional
Rutgers was not the only Eastern team to perform well in Greensboro.
Princeton advanced four distance runners. Alex Banfich made it in the women’s 5k, Ashley Higginson in the steeple. In the men’s, Kyle Soloff made it in the 5 and Donn Cabral in the steeple and 5. Cabral, sophomore from Glastonbury, Conn., in his first year in the steeple, ran a 13-second PR, 8:35.60, in a race contested early Saturday morning after a thunderstorm canceled the race the night before.
In the women’s 1500, Villanova advanced Canadian Sheila Reid and Long Island’s Ellen Dougherty (Riverhead), Stony Brook had Lucy Van Dalen and Iona Gregson. Among those who did not make it through were Nicole Schappert of Villanova, Jackie Drouin of Columbia and New Yorker Caitlin Lane of Penn State. Van Dalen’s twin sister, Holly, advanced in the 5k, as did Amanda Marino and Bogdana Mimic of Villanova, Marie Louise Asselin of West Virginia, Caroline McDonough of Columbia and freshman Juliet Bottorff of Duke. Bottorff ran on the winning Penn Relays DMR for the Tatnall School (Wilmington, Del.) a year ago. Among those who did not make it in the 5k were Long Islander Suejin Ahn of Duke, Sam Roecker (BHBL) of Providence and Columbia’s Emily Lanois.
Eastern men had a sensational weekend in the hurdles. In addition to the qualification and school records by Younger and Grady for Rutgers, three other Easterners moved on in the men’s highs. Cory Nelms (Neptune, NJ), a senior at Miami, ran a stunning 13.65 lifetime best, winning Heat I, and Domonick Sylve, a senior at West Point, won heat III with his own PR, 13.67. Chris Kinney of Georgetown also advanced, just missing his PR with a 13.79.
Other highlights:
MEN
Rutgers and Seton Hall (3:06.90) advanced in the 4x4 along with Delaware State (3:06.06) and George Mason (3:08.29). Binghamton failed to finish.
In the 1,500, Columbia’s Merber won his heat in a tactical 3:50, with Princeton’s Trevor Van Ackeren also making it out of that heat. Iona’s Daniel Lipus failed to advance.
In the 8, Andrews, Rutt, Gagnon, Roller and White all advanced, but left behind were Jeff Moriarty of Columbia, despite running 1:48.14; Russell Dinkins (1:49) of Princeton, and Tyler Fogarty (1:50) of Albany.
Charles Cox (Monmouth Regional, NJ) ran another PR in the men’s 400, 45.62, to advance for North Carolina, but his brother, Chris (46.75) didn’t make it for Seton Hall, nor did his UNC teammate Clayton Parros (46.84), the freshman from Seton Hall Prep. Aloddin Fothergill of Maryland/Eastern Shore just missed in the 400 (46.04), but he did run a leg on the UMES 4x1, which advanced with an excellent 39.76.
In the high jump, Justin Frick cleared 7-1 to make it for Princeton, but his teammate Ian Fox no-heighted, Adam Bergo of Rutgers cleared just 6-9, and Dean Brown of St. Francis/Brooklyn lost a jumpoff for the final qualifying position.
In the steeple behind Cabral, New Yorkers Ryan McDermott of Duke and John Martinez of North Carolina State both PR’d and advanced. Falling short were Craig Forys (Colts Neck, NJ) of Michigan and Alex Felce of Stony Brook.
In the field events, among those who did not advance were Gary Jones and Duane Teixeira of Cornell in the triple jump, James Plummer of Rutgers in the discus, and Vincent Elardo of Monmouth and Eric Plummer of Princeton in the shot. Plummer, the East’s seasonal leader, threw just 166-1 for 22nd place. Elardo missed the cutoff in the shot by just 7 inches.
WOMEN
Seton Hall got the final qualifying spot in the 4x4, running 3:37.79 despite not using their ace, Jernail Hayes, who was busy with individual events. They used the team of Krista Simkins, Toneisha Friday, Louise Faye and Nijgia Snapp. Hayes qualified in the IH, running 56.95. Faye, a graduate student from Paris, failed to advance in the triple jump, as did Malin Marmbrandt of Manhattan (41-2 ½), Queen Okeke of Columbia (40-11w) and New Yorker Gabriela Baiter (40-2 ¼) of Brown. Faye jumped 39-6.
In the 4x4 Columbia, which had run 3:35 at the Heps, managed just 3:40.32 for 17th place, but their anchor, sophomore Sharay Hale ran a lifetime-best 52.45 to advance in the individual 400. Her fellow relay-team member, Kyra Caldwell, missed out in the IH, running 58.32. Penn State’s Fawn Dorr (Akron, NY) ran a lifetime best 55.57 in that event and will also anchor the Nittany Lions’ excellent 4x4. PS also has the steeplechase favorite, Bridget Franek, and hurdler Aleesha Barber.
Trisha-Ann Hawthorne (Hamilton HS, Westchester County) made it in the 100 for UConn, running 11.40, but she fell short in the 200, running 23.57 for 13th place. The Huskies did make it in the 4x1, but they lost their high jumpers, shot putters and hammer throwers.
In the steeplechase, in addition to Franek and Higginson, freshman Shelby Greany (Suffern) of Providence advanced, but another Suffern graduate, Kara McKenna of North Carolina State, did not, nor did Jennifer Pierson and Laura Cummings of Albany, Julie Quinn and Mallory Anderson of Columbia, and Heather Stephens of Syracuse.
Attention now turns to Eugene, Ore., where the national championships will begin on Wednesday, June 9. The final day will be contested in a two-hour session on Saturday morning, June 12, finishing at noon local time in order to fit a live television window timed for the Eastern time zone. The meet is considered a sellout. In fact, the University of Oregon has set up temporary bleachers holding an additional 950 people because of ticket demand. Some 10,000 fans are expected to pack Hayward Field each of the four days.