TRACK AND FIELD GU Competes With Best in N.Y. By Scott Homa Hoya Staff Writer

Tim Llewellyn/The Hoya Junior Jamillah Bowman races to victory in the 4x400m relay race at George Mason last weekend. Although the squad won the race then, they took fourth at the Armory Invitational this weekend.

In what was billed as the premier meet of the indoor season, the Georgetown men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams traveled to New York City last weekend to duke it out with 13 nationally-ranked teams at the Armory Collegiate Invitational, where the Hoyas continued to accumulate championship qualifying times.

Georgetown entered the competition among the favorites in the 50-team field, with the women ranked No. 12 in the nation and the men No. 25. Both teams lived up to their high rankings over the weekend, meeting nine NCAA-qualifying marks and posting top finishes in several other events.

Sophomore Jesse O’Connell turned in one of the top individual performances of the competition, winning the 800m run in a meet record time of 1:49.83 seconds. O’Connell, the USA junior national champion in the event, surpassed his previous qualifying mark set last month at the Kroger Invitational by one tenth of a second to defeat Marc Sylvester of Tennessee and David Dean of Princeton, who entered the competition higher on the national qualifiers list than O’Connell.

“Jesse always shows up and runs well at the big meets,” Associate Head Coach Andrew Valmon said. “My instructions to him before the race were to simply to make it to the podium, and he went out and finished on top. He showed a lot of poise and maturity.”

Junior Ali Najjar finished the 800m three spots behind O’Connell for fourth place with a time of 1:51.40.

The Hoyas earned a pair of NCAA qualifications in the 3,000m run, as seniors Chris Miltenberg and Corey Smith ran to third and fourth place finishes, respectively. Miltenberg, an All-American in the event last season, ran a personal best 8:01.73 and Smith trailed with a mark of 8:02.71.

Senior John Marquiss and junior Robert Wingate-Robinson led the men’s team in the sprints, as Marquiss crossed the line of the 400m dash in 47.80 and Wingate-Robinson clocked 21.71 in the 200m. Both performances met Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) standards.

“I was very happy with Rob and John making the finals in a meet of this caliber,” Valmon said. “Those two showed they can run right along with LSU, Texas and Tennessee.”

In the field events, senior Josh Rollins posted impressive marks in both the triple jump and long jump. Rollins covered an NCAA-qualifying 15.66m in the triple jump to take second and garnered sixth place in the long jump with a leap of 7.10m.

The distance medley relay highlighted action on the women’s side, as the team of sophomore Monica Hargrove, junior Jill Laurendeau, grad student Heather Blackard and senior Tyrona Heath took first place and earned Georgetown its first automatic qualification of the season. Laurendeau anchored the race, crossing the line in 11:14.09, which currently stands as the top collegiate time in the nation.

Georgetown has a rich tradition in the distance medley relay, having earned points in the event at nationals for the past six years in a row. This is the first time that Heath has run the event this season, as she replaced sophomore Treniere Clement. Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ron Helmer said he might make additional changes to the team before nationals.

Laurendeau and Heath followed their performance in the DMR by notching two more NCAA qualifying times, as Laurendeau recorded 2:08.13 and Heath timed 2:08.43 to finish second and fifth, respectively, in the 800m run.

The 4x400m relay team also posted a strong performance, taking fourth place with an NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 3:40.68. Top-ranked South Carolina, the favorite to win the event at nationals, won the race in 3:35.49.

Junior Erin Sicher earned another NCAA qualification as she blazed to a personal record of 4:44.98 in the mile run. Sicher battled a brutally competitive field, including Stanford’s eight-time All American Lauren Fleshman, to earn fourth place overall and qualify in the event for the second year in a row.

Sophomores Treniere Clement (4:52.13) and Rose Wetzel (5:01.05) and seniors Lorena Adams (4:52.99) and Emily Enstice (4:58.29) followed Sicher in the mile with ECAC qualifying times. Adams and Clement both ran to personal records in the event.

Freshman Jodee Adams-Moore set another personal best on the day, timing 9:46.80 in the 3,000m run.

“With as many PR’s as we had, we’re moving forward, but we still need to continue to grow,” Helmer said. “What’s on the top of my priorities is making sure that everybody runs to the best of their ability.”

Next weekend the teams will travel to Syracuse, N.Y., to defend their titles in the Big East Championships.

“We’re coming along, and we have to make sure we get back up for next week, because that’s what we train for,” Valmon said. “We’re excited. Other schools are sitting around waiting for us, knowing they need to bring their `A’ game.”

The Hoyas enter as returning champions on both the men’s and women’s side but will face stiff competition from one of the deepest conferences in the nation. The men will receive their most formidable challenges from No. 11 Villanova, Connecticut and Notre Dame, while the women will face No. 20 Miami, Pittsburgh and Seton Hall.

“It’s going to be a tough battle,” Valmon said. “We’ll have our work cut out for us, but our goal is simple: to go in, compete hard and come back with a championship.”