Four Bears Provisionally Qualify for NCAA Outdoors at WU Invite

RESULTS

St. Louis, Mo., March 29, 2008 – Four Washington University track and field student-athletes provisionally qualified for the 2008 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in action at the Washington University Invitational at the Bushyhead Track in St. Louis, Mo., on Friday-Saturday, March 28-29. The Washington U. women’s team took first-place overall at the meet, compiling 163 team points, while the men’s squad placed fifth with 79.50 points.

Seniors Morgen Leonard-Fleckman and Tyler Mulkin were the two women’s athletes to provisionally qualify for NCAA events. Leonard-Fleckman placed second in the pole vault with a season-best height of 3.65 meters and Mulkin was the runner-up in the 10,000-meter run, finishing in 36:47.31.

For the men’s team, a pair of freshman, Scott Pettit and Ben Harmon, posted NCAA provisional marks. Pettit placed second in the pole vault, reaching a height of 4.70 meters, to match NCAA provisional standards, while Harmon won the decathlon, tallying 6,471 points, just 129 shy of meeting the automatic qualifying mark.

The men’s team had several other impressive individual performances at the two-day meet. Sophomore Keith England won the javelin throw with a season-best distance of 56.03 meters. Sophomore Matt Kruger was the runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, with a time of 10:02.76, and senior Jesse McDaniel placed third in the 5,000-meter run, finishing just two-seconds shy of the NCAA provisional mark, with a time of 14:50.00.

Also posting strong finishes for the WU men were freshman Skyler Moots and senior Doug Beattie. Moots came in third in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:02.56, and Beattie’s time of 10.99 in the 100-meter dash was good for a fifth-place finish. The men also placed first in the 1,600-meter relay, submitting a time of 3:23.62.

The WU women’s 1,600-meter relay team also grabbed a first-place finish, with a time of 4:01.25. The Red and Green’s 4x400-relay team represented one of the Bears’ five first-place finishes. Junior Danielle Wadlington accounted for two of the WU victories. She won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.16, 0.16 shy of the provisional mark, and also took the 400-meter hurdles in 1:04.52.

Freshman Kelli Blake grabbed first in the 1,500-meter run, finishing in 4:48.62, and senior Lisa Sudmeier was the 800-meter run winner, with a time of 2:19.23.

The Washington University men’s and women’s track and field squads will return to action on Saturday, April 5, for the Washington University Select meet, held at Bushyhead Track in St. Louis, Mo.