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Meet Records from Curtis and Tully Lead Villanova at New Balance Collegiate
Feb. 10, 2008
NEW YORK -- Senior Bobby Curtis (Louisville, Ky.) shattered the meet record in the 3000 meter run to qualify for the NCAA Championships and junior Sean Tully (Syosset, N.Y.) broke the meet record in the 1000 meter run during an outstanding weekend for Villanova at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the New York Armory. In addition to the two meet records, freshman Carl Mackenzie (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time by running a four-minute mile.
Curtis posted the Wildcats first automatic NCAA qualifying time of the season with his 3000 meter run. His time of 7:50.17 erased the previous two-year old record by more than eight seconds and was the quickest time for a Villanova runner this season by a 28-second margin. Curtis finished first out of 24 runners in the championship competition and won the race by more than three seconds over a runner from Georgetown.
Mackenzie placed second in the championship portion of the mile run with a time of 4:00.25. That was well under the provisional qualifying mark for the national championships and places McKenzie in excellent position to run in the national meet later this season. He was just over one second off the winning pace and is the seventh different Wildcat to qualify for postseason competition in the mile this season.
On the first day of this weekend's meet, Tully set a meet record in winning the championship 1000 meter run. His time of 2:23.22 was a personal best and more than a second faster than the previous top mark at the meet.
The three leading performances for Villanova were part of a list of 11 new qualifiers for postseason competition. In the 60 meter dash, senior Kevin Okolie (Dix Hills, N.Y.) ran for the first time this season and produced a qualifying time of 6.95. He was also one of three Wildcats that qualified for the BIG EAST Championships later this month in the 200 meter dash. Okolie crossed in 22.37 and was followed by junior Austin Casey (Boonton, N.J.) in 22.42 and Michael Lynch in 22.66 to qualify for the conference meet.
Senior Mark Korich (Wyndmoor, Pa.) led a list of three qualifiers in the 800 meter run with his time of 1:53.14. Senior Terence Byrnes (Sayville, N.Y.) and freshman Matt Wickler (Richboro, Pa.) also registered qualifying times of 1:54.66 and 1:54.89, respectively.
In the mile run, senior Michael Kerrigan (Stroudsburg, Pa.) lowered his season-best time to 4:04.60 and senior Geoffrey Doody (Atlanta, Ga.) recorded a time of 4:18.08 to qualify for the BIG EAST meet.
Members of the Villanova team will be in competition at the Haverford Quad Meet and Haverford Tri Meet over the next two weeks, leading up to the conference championships on February 23-24 back at the Armory.
Complete Villanova Results
60 Meter Dash Championship
Kevin Okolie - 35th of 97 (6.95), preliminaries
60 Meter Hurdles Championship
Patrick Gazzini - t-51st of 65 (8.47), preliminaries
200 Meter Dash Championship
Kevin Okolie - t-39th of 101 (22.37), preliminaries
400 Meter Dash Championship
Elvis Lewis - 17th of 122 (47.98), preliminaries
500 Meter Dash Championship
John Morse - 23rd of 56 (1:06.13)
800 Meter Run Championship
Mark Korich - 20th of 29 (1:53.14)
800 Meter Run College
Terence Byrnes - 6th of 77 (1:54.66)
1000 Meter Run Championship
Sean Tully - 1st of 52 (2:23.22), meet record
Mile Run Championship
Carl Mackenzie - 2nd of 21 (4:00.25)
Mile Run College
Geoff Doody - 19th of 41 (4:18.08)
3000 Meter Run Championship
Bobby Curtis - 1st of 24 (7:50.17), meet record
3000 Meter Run College
Dan Lewis - 20th of 58 (8:29.37)
5000 Meter Run Championship
Bobby Papazian - 8th of 10 (14:58.78)
5000 Meter Run College
Stephen Curley - 2nd of 22 (14:57.02) 4x400 Meter Relay Pennsylvania
Villanova `A' - 1st of 6 (3:15.74)
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