Shelby Greany, fresh off a successful first year at Providence College, heads to the World Junior Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick, in Eastern Canada this weekend, to run the 3,000-meter steeplechase as a member of the U.S. team.
Greany, 19, a Suffern HS graduate, broke the American Junior record in the event last month at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., finishing sixth and running 10:00.88. That time puts her fourth on the current World Junior list for 2010, far behind an Ethiopian and a Kenyan at 9:36 but in the hunt for bronze.
She will not be joined on the team by fellow New York distance runner Aisling Cuffe, however. Cuffe, a junior this past season at Cornwall, won the women’s 5,000 at the U.S. Trials last month in Des Moines, Iowa, a race contested in the afternoon with the temperature in the 90s. Cuffe won the race by half a lap in 16:52, but her time was short of the mandatory meet standard of 16:30.
The United States does have one Junior runner who competed at the Trials and who has met the standard – Emily Sisson, a high school runner from Nebraska. Sisson won the 3,000 – a race in which Cuffe finished third – and she elected to stay in the 3 rather than running the 5. The second-place finisher in the 3k, Jordan Hasay of Oregon, qualified in both the 1,500 and 3,000 and elected to remain in both events. In both circumstances, that kept Cuffe out of one of the two team berths in the 3k. Cuffe had met that standard.
Two talented Eastern halfmilers will comprise the U.S. entry in the men’s 800, and they are ranked 1-2 on the current world Junior list. They are Cas Loxsom, from Connecticut and a freshman this year at Penn State, and Robby Andrews, from Manalapan, N.J., the NCAA indoor champion this year as a freshman at Virginia.
Andrews has the top time in the world at 1:45.54, while Loxsom – who upset Andrews at the U.S. Trials – is equal-second on that list at 1:46.74. Another New Jerseyan, Sadiki White, a freshman this year at LSU, is ninth on that list, at 1:47.57, but he did not make the squad.
New Jersey is also represented in the men’s hammer, 1,500 and shot put; the women’s 800, and on the coaching staff.
Princeton freshmen have two of those berths, in Conor McCullough in the hammer and Peter Callahan in the 1,500. McCullough, a Californian, broke the U.S. Junior record in the hammer this spring, throwing 232-3, while Callahan, an Illinois native, won the U.S. Trials in the 15. The Trials winner in the men’s shot was Nick Vena (Morristown, N.J.), whose winning put of 66-1 (6k weight) is currently second on the World Junior list, an inch and a quarter behind Ali Reza Mehrsafooti of Iran. The winner of the Trials in the women’s 800 was Ajee Wilson, the high school sophomore from Neptune who has run 2:04.
The men’s head coach is Garden Stater and Armory veteran Ed Gorman.
Other U.S. team members with Eastern credentials are Rachel Roberts, Buffalo freshman, shot put; Evonne Britton, Penn State, women’s 100 and 400 hurdles; Carlton Lavong (Methacton, Pa.), men’s long jump; Marquis Dendy, Delaware high school junior, men’s triple jump, and Allison Updake, Pennsylvania prep, women’s javelin.
The meet gets under way Monday and lasts throughout the week.