Jan. 16, 2010
PHILADELPHIA - Three Explorers hit IC4A qualifying times to lead the track and field squad at the NYU Gotham Cup at the Armory in New York City on Friday. Korey Edwards qualified in the 3K, Trevon Rainford hit the mark in the mile and Dave Laratta qualified in the 1,000 meter race.
Edwards captured 3K gold as well, topping the field of 57 runners with a time of 8:25.97, outlasting runner-up Chris Spooner of the Central Park Track Club by one-third of a second. His time cleared the IC4A standard of 8:27.20 as well.
In addition to Edwards, four other Explorers competed in the 3K and all finished in the top 15. That includes Sean Ward (4th; 8:30.69), Tyler Jones (6th; 8:33.55), Tom Pannulla (7th; 8:36.21) and Andrew Wagoner (13th; 8:52.07).
Rainford's second place finish in the mile run also earned him an IC4A qualification as he bested the standard of 4:14.90 with a 4:12.20, just 1.5 seconds off of the winning time of 4:10.73 posted by Adam Vess of Marist. Also in the mile race was Mike Bowden (5th; 4:19.02) and Kasey Gellar (6th; 4:20.47).
Laratta ran to a 2:29.46 in the 1,000 meter race to tie for a fifth place finish in the 60-runner field and also come in under the standard of 2:29.95. Paul Reilly (9th; 2:32.06) and Rollin Deas (14th; 2:35.41) also posted top 15 finishes.
The men's 4x400 meter relay squad faced stiff competition as the team of Rashad Little, Andrew Maxwell, Laratta and Wayne Bartholomew combined for a time of 3:21.64 and a seventh place finish in the 31-team field. The fast race featured qualifying times from each of the top five team finishers, and the Explorers were less than two seconds off of the standard themselves.
The Explorer women also posted strong performances at the Gotham Cup. Stephanie Bearish clocked a 10:02.23 in the 3K as she was the top collegiate finisher in the 41-runner race (third overall). She finished only behind Explorer alum Christa Plummer who won the race and a club runner from Bryn Mawr, and was less than four seconds off of the ECAC qualifying time.
Joining Bearish in the 3K race were Caitlin Storbeck (6th; 10:10.93), Samantha Gallagher (8th; 10:14.02) and Meghan Lutz (9th; 10:21.48).
Wendy Hutchinson had a strong day as well, capturing silver in the 1,000 meter race as she was edged out by a mere nine-hundredths of a second. She clocked a 2:59.79 in the field of 47 runners.
Courtney McKnight posted a strong time in the 500 meters, barely missing the ECAC standard (1:16.04) with a time of 1:16.91 for eighth place out of 45 runners.
Jalessa Graham led the Explorer sprint squad with a 12th place finish out of 67 in the preliminaries of the 60 meter dash. Her mark of 8.00 qualified her for the event final, where she finished 13th with a mark of 8.03.
