May 27, 2005

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Three Wildcat athletes finished in first place in the preliminary heats on Friday, as competition opened at the NCAA East Regional hosted by Manhattan College. On the women's side, sophomore Monique Morgan (Kingston, Jamaica) finished first in the 100 meter hurdles and junior Marina Muncan (Pancevo, Yugoslavia) paced the field in the 1500 meter run. On the men's side, senior Ryan Hayden (Richmond, Canada) crossed first in the 1500 meter run.

In the 100 meter hurdles, Morgan posted a time of 13.17 to lead a field of 29 runners. Her time was just .05 seconds off of the East Region record set in 2003, represented Morgan's second-fastest time of the season. She finished with a time of 13.16 in the semifinals of the ECAC Championship earlier this month. In Friday afternoon's race, Ebony Foster of N.C. State also registered a time of 13.17. Morgan was running in the fourth and final heat, in which there was a slight wind blowing. The winds were calm when Foster ran in the second heat. Morgan will run in Saturday's finals scheduled for 5 p.m.

Muncan finished first out of 21 runners in the preliminaries of the 1500 meter run. Her time of 4:22.42 was more than four seconds faster than the runner-up from High Point. Muncan was running the 1500 meters for the third time during the outdoor season. In her other two races, she captured Sea Ray Relays and Big East Championships with first-place times. The finals of the event take place on Saturday at 4:45 p.m.

On the men's side of the 1500 meters, Hayden also took first by a margin of four seconds. His time of 3:44.51 beat out the runner-up from Florida State and the rest of the 33-man field. He has not been defeated in any of the four 1500-meter races he has run this season, and his time on Friday afternoon was his second-fastest of the spring. Also running in the event for the Wildcats were sophomores Kippy Keino (Eldoret, Kenya) and Michael Kerrigan (Stroudsburg, Pa.). Keino placed 23rd with a time of 3:52.83, while Kerrigan was 33rd with a mark of 4:07.52. Neither of the two qualified for Saturday's finals. Hayden will run in the finals, which are scheduled to begin at 4:52 p.m.

In other action on the men's side on Friday, sophomore Drew Eckman (Oxford, Pa.) finished 14th in the preliminaries of the 400 meter hurdles, and did not qualify for the final. Eckman had a time of 51.83, while LaRon Bennett of Georgia was in first place with a time of 50.18. The eight qualifiers for the finals were separated by just 0.77 seconds. Also for Villanova, sophomore Robert McDade (Broomall, Pa.) placed 10th in the discus with a toss of 51.94 meters. Garrett Johnson of Florida State won the event with a mark of 60.77 meters.

On the women's side, four Wildcat runners competed in the preliminaries of the 800 meter run. Senior Colleen Taylor (Wilmington, Del.) led the way with a time of 2:08.47, and placed 10th in the field of 35 athletes. She was followed by freshman Arusha McKenzie (Kingston, Jamaica) in 16th place with a time of 2:09.49. Senior Holly Cosnett (Haddonfield, N.J.) was 30th in 2:13.83, while sophomore Akilah Vargas (Bronx, N.Y.) was 31st in 2:14.56. Jennifer Kemp of West Virginia led the race after the preliminaries with a time of 2:06.30.