TRACK AND FIELD Hoya Women Finish Second at Big East By Scott Homa Hoya Staff Writer

Last weekend the men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams traveled to Syracuse for the Big East Championships, where the men placed fourth overall among the 14-team field, and the women’s team, currently ranked No. 16 in the nation, earned runner-up honors.

Competing almost exclusively on the track without the advantage of a large field event contingent the women’s team entered the meet knowing they would be fighting an uphill battle.

“We always enter in a manner that allows us to have the best opportunity to win,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ron Helmer said. “But after looking at the probable entries from the others schools, and adding up the scores, I didn’t think we had a real good shot of winning. I thought that we could be competitive, and I thought we could be there in case somebody messed up and maybe pick up the pieces, but I knew it was going to take a great effort on our part to beat a lot of the teams in this conference.”

If a great effort was needed, the women rose to the challenge, exceeding expectations by defeating deeper all-around teams like Seton Hall, West Virginia and nationally-ranked Miami. Led by victories in the 800m run and the 4x800m relay, and competing without their top runner junior All-American Marni Kruppa, who is redshirting this season, the Hoyas amassed 110 points, falling only two points shy of first place finisher Notre Dame.

Senior Tyrona Heath showed her durability over the weekend, running a grueling five races throughout the course of the competition. Heath timed 2:08.07 to take first place in the 800m run, finished fifth in the 500m dash (1:13.43) and combined with graduate student Heather Blackard, junior Jill Laurendeau and sophomore Treniere Clement to win the 4x800m relay.

Prior to running the relay, Laurendeau and Blackard also earned points individually in the 800m, and Clement finished third in the 1,000m.

“Of the 19 girls that were there, 11 of them were in very difficult doubles, triples or even quadruples,” Helmer said. “They were running multiple races, both trials and finals, and were all still performing very well in the end.”

Senior Lorena Adams ran one of the most challenging doubles, timing 16:46.66 to earn second place in the 5,000m run, and then setting a personal record of 9:36.43 in the 3,000m the next day. Both times met NCAA provisional standards.

Sophomore Amanda Pape followed Adams in the 5,000m run, crossing the line in 17:22.35 to secure fifth place.

The distance medley relay team of Blackard, sophomore Kori Hamilton and juniors Erin Sicher and Janelle Billingslea timed 11:34.36 to place fourth and Billingslea, Hamilton, junior Jamillah Bowman and sophomore Monica Hargrove earned runner-up honors in the 4x400m. Billingslea also recorded a third place finish in the 500m dash.

Sicher, Laurendeau and senior Emily Enstice all placed highly in the mile run, and Sicher scored points in a third event as well, taking fourth in the 1,000m run.

“We couldn’t have scored many more points than what we did,” Helmer said. “They ran with a whole lot of heart and I thought, across the board, it was a great effort.”

The men’s team posted another strong performance, tallying 90 points to earn fourth place in the competition. Connecticut scored 136.5 to win the meet, and Villanova (125) and Notre Dame (101.75) followed in second and third.

“Connecticut started the first day with 44 points, earning 26 points in the pentahelon alone, and that’s a lot of ground to make up” Associate Head Coach Andrew Valmon said. “I think we had a good fight, but once the second day started, and we lost by two one-hundredths of a second in one race [the 800m run], and then two one-hundredths of a second in another [the 1,000m run], and in both instances the people we lost to were Connecticut athletes, I think it deflated us. It was tough to rebound and that’s when Villanova and Notre Dame snuck up on us.”

While Notre Dame dominated the distance events, scoring 38 points in the 3,000m and 5,000m runs, Villanova gained ground on the Hoyas late in the competition by taking the top two spots in the mile run and sweeping all three relays.

“I think we were focused on Connecticut and battling with them, and once we realized that they had a response to every one of our challenges, it was tough, and I don’t know if our kids responded back,” Valmon said. “That’s when the other schools came back in the last couple of events, where we were expecting to do well, and stepped up.”

Although Notre Dame and Villanova established leads in the relays and distance events, Georgetown turned in some solid performances of its own in these areas.

Graduate student Kyle Smits followed Notre Dame’s defending national champion Ryan Shay to earn second place in the 5,000m run, and the distance medley relay team of sophomore Andrew Nolan, junior Dylan Welsh, and seniors Chris Miltenberg and Corey Smith finished a close second behind Villanova.

Nolan ran a swift 49.5-second quarter mile split to help the team stay among the leaders.

“Andrew did a really nice job,” Assistant Coach Patrick Henner said. “He’s the type of person who has helped our team a lot. He’s a walk-on who has really developed and started contributing quite a bit. I’m pleased with what he’s been able to do for us.”

Henner also praised Welsh, who ran his half-mile leg of the DMR in 1:52.00, and then took fourth in the mile and ran the team’s fastest split in the 4x800m relay.

“Dylan ran very well last weekend,” Henner said.

Other solid performances on the track came from sophomores Ali Najjar and Jesse O’Connell, who earned second place finishes in the 800m and 1,000m runs, respectively, and senior John arquiss, who earned fourth in the 400m dash.

But the highlight of the men’s competition took place in the field events, as graduate student Josh Rollins scored points in three different events, including victories in both the triple jump and long jump, to earn the Big East Championship’s Most Outstanding Field Performer award.

Rollins posted marks of 7.37m and 15.78m in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, and took eighth in the high jump with a leap of 2.01m. The 21 points Rollins collected during the competition were the only points Georgetown scored in the field events across both teams.

“On the women’s side, we scored 110 points, and they were all on the track,” Helmer said. “Nobody else came close to that, but that’s the situation we’re in. Other teams are in a position where they can cover more events than we do, and that’s where we get in trouble. But we came within two points of winning it anyway, and we’re very proud of that. With a couple of breaks in there, we could have pulled it off.”

This weekend Georgetown will travel to New Brunswick, N.J. for their last tune-up before the ECAC/IC4A Championships on March 2.