April 18, 2005

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - At the prestigious Sea Ray Relays this past weekend, sophomore Drew Eckman (Oxford, Pa.) qualified for next month's NCAA Regional with a time of 51.98 in the 400 meter hurdles. Eckman placed sixth out of 30 runners in the race. Overall, four individuals and two relay teams qualified for various postseason competitions at the Sea Ray Relays. Other members of the team competed at the Princeton Quad, where two Wildcats posted qualifying marks for the Big East tournament.

Graduate Carlos Bedoya (White Plains, N.Y.) and sophomore KippyKeino (Eldoret, Kenya) each qualified for the IC4A Championship at the Sea Ray Relays. Bedoya posted a time of 21.53 in the 200 meter dash to earn his bid, while Keino ran a time of 9:08.67 in the 3000 meter steeplechase. Also for the Wildcats, freshman Francisco Aguirre (Quito, Ecuador) and junior Milos Mitric (Zivke Micial, Yugoslavia) qualified for the Big East Championship. Aguirre registered a time of 48.44 in the 400 meter dash, while Mitric ran the 5000 meters in 14:48.80.

Villanova also qualified for the IC4A in two relays. The 4x100 meter relay team and the 4x400 meter relay team each posted qualifying times. Freshman Kevin Okolie (Dix Hills, N.Y.) ran the opening leg on the 400 meter relay, while Aguirre, Bedoya, Eckman and junior Carl Hansen (Glen Mills, Pa.) made up the 1600 meter relay quartet.

At the Princeton Quad, junior Craig Segal (Holmdel, N.J.) qualified for the Big East meet with a time of 14:56.95 in the 5000 meters. He finished second out of eight runners in the race. Sophomore Jon Zacharkiw (West Chester, Pa.) posted a mark of 44.30 meters in the discus and qualified for the conference meet. Junior Nick Burkey (Greenbrae, Calif.), who had already qualified for the Big East meet in the 110 meter hurdles, lowered his qualifying mark from 15.29 to 15.19.

The 400 meter hurdles are the second event in which Eckman has qualified for the East Regional. He also qualified in the 400 meter dash with a time of 46.90 at the Penn Invitational on April 9. In addition, senior Ryan Hayden (Richmond, Canada) and sophomore Robert McDade (Broomall, Pa.) have each qualified for the regional meet. Hayden's qualifying time was a 3:46.63 mark in the 1500 meters at Penn, while McDade has qualified in both the discus and shot put. His marks are 51.32m and 16.80m in the two events, respectively.

The NCAA East Regional will be held on May 27-28 at the Randalls Island track facility. Manhattan College will serve as tournament host. Next up for Villanova is the Widener Invitational on April 22-23. The Wildcats are also preparing for the upcoming Penn Relays, which will be held April 28-30 at Franklin Field.