Feb. 18, 2010
PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle track and field program aims to return to the top of the Atlantic 10 standings when the Explorers compete in the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships starting Friday morning at the University of Rhode Island's Mackal Fieldhouse.
The Explorer men were predicted to finish fourth in the league standings, while the women were predicted to finish eighth. Charlotte looks to defend its titles after sweeping the men's and women's crowns last season. Rounding out the top five men's predictions are Rhode Island, Temple, La Salle and Saint Joseph's. The remainder of the top five women's predictions are Dayton, Rhode Island, Temple and Richmond.
Seniors Korey Edwards and Trevon Rainford return to Mackal Fieldhouse where they both earned gold medals in last year's meet. Edwards is the conference's reigning 1,000 meter champion and holds the top times in the A-10 this year in both the mile and the 3,000 meter run. He posted a 4:06.79 in the mile at the Valentine Invitational last weekend, an IC4A qualifying time and just a second off of the NCAA provisional mark. He earned his conference-leading 3K time at the Terrier Invitational, posting an 8:15.92 to qualify for IC4A's.
Rainford is the reigning Atlantic 10 mile champion and currently holds the league's third-best time of the season. He ran a 4:12.20 at the Gotham Cup to qualify for IC4A's.
The Explorers will also rely on its youth this year. Tyler Jones makes his first appearance at Mackal after redshirting last season. Jones will look to power the long distance squad, coming in to the meet with the second-leading time in the A-10 in the 5,000 meter run. He blitzed to a 14:22.89 finish at the Terrier Invite, just .31 second off of Kevin McDonnell's (Saint Joseph's) league-leading time of 14:22.58.
Also making his debut is Dave Hausherr, who redshirted last season as well. He will look to add points to the Explorer total as he ranks sixth in the conference in the 5,000m and eighth in the 3,000m. Dave Laratta should be a force too as he posted the fourth-best 800m time of the season and sixth in the 1,000m.
The Explorer women are a young group and have big shoes to fill in the loss of the graduated Christa Plummer. However, the Blue and Gold have very promising contenders in redshirt freshmen Stephanie Bearish, Meghan Lutz and Wendy Hutchinson along with sophomores Caitlin Storbeck and Samantha Gallagher.
Storbeck enters this year's meet ranked second in the Atlantic 10 in the 1,000 meter run, where she posted a 2:56.22 at the Rider/Lafayette Meet last weekend. She is also in the league standings in the 3,000 meters with a personal season-best 10:10.93.
Gallagher and Bearish are 4-5 in the conference in both the mile and the 3,000 meters. Gallagher posted her season-best mile time of 4:56.88 at the Geigengack Invitational, as did Bearish who ran a 4:57.46. The duo ran together in the 3K at the Terrier Invitational, with Gallagher running a 9:55.57 and Bearish a 9:56.15.
Lutz aims to lead the long distance squad and in her first year ranks second in the conference in the 5,000 meter run, just one second behind Richmond standout Nicol Traynor. Lutz's best 5K time of the season came at the Terrier Invite, where she ran a 17:35.72.
Kellilyn Fierras, one of the team's few seniors, along with Hutchinson will anchor the mid-distances. Fierras owns the third-best 1,000 meter time in the conference and Hutchinson is 11th on the list. Fierras is also sixth in the A-10 in the 800 meter run with Hutchinson also on the list in ninth.
The 2010 edition of the Atlantic 10 Championships starts Friday at 9:00 AM with the multi-events. The field events get underway at 1:00 PM and the running events start at 2:00 PM.
