April 15, 2006

Knoxville, Tenn. - The men's and women's track and field teams competed at the 40th Sea Ray Relays on the Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium on Friday and Saturday.

On the first day of competition, the men and women had several outstanding performances. The women were led by the distance trio of Marina Muncan (4: 19.00), Frances Koons (4:22.19), and Ioana Parusheva (4:24.14), who all achieving NCAA regional qualifying times in the 1500m; they placed first, second and fifth respectively. Monique Morgan continued her tremendous season once again, placing third in the women's 100m hurdles in a time of 13.36 (regional qualifier), her second regional qualifying time of the season. Ellen Dougherty achieved her first Big East outdoor qualifying time in the 800m (2:13.11).

On the men's side Elvis Lewis (400m, 46.87), Drew Eckman (800m 1:50.38), and Robert McDade (discus, 54.75m) scored regional qualifiers in their respective events.

A limited squad competed on day two of the Relays. Freshmen Matt Papson led the men's team with a fourth place finish in the javelin, throwing 57.54m. On the women's side, the 4x800m team of Koons, Muncan, grad-student Ioana Parusheva, and junior Akilah Vargas took home second place in a time of 8:34.47.

The rest of the men's team competed at the Princeton University Quad Meet. Highlights of the meet included: junior Andrew Keino winning the 3000m steeplechase comfortably in a time of 9:12 and senior Marc Pelerin winning the 3000m in 8:27. Junior Mark Korich ran a well-executed 1500m, running a season-best of 3:52 and sophomore Jonathan Kolodziej came across the line in 1:54 for the men's 800m.

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Story courtesy of Andrew Blaich