McEntee & Ward Advance to NCAA National Championships

It was deja vu all over again today in Sam McEntee's 1500 meter race at the NCAA East Regional. Executing the same tactic as in his preliminary round, McEntee ran in last place and out of trouble through 800 meters, then went immediately to the front and pushed the pace over the final 700 meters. In the preliminary round, McEntee held off all comers and won the heat. Today, he held off all but two men, finished third in this heat (in 3:48.73) and automatically qualified for the NCAA National championship meet at Drake University in Des Moines. McEntee has thus qualified for Nationals both indoors and outdoors this year and hopes to improve on his 4th place All-American performance indoors earlier this year. As seen in the results below, McEntee's heat was the slower of the two heats, and both qualifiers on time came from the other heat. In a surprising twist, neither Penn State's Robby Creese, the NCAA record holder over 1000 meters, nor Notre Dame's Jeremy Rae, a two-time Big East champion and 2011 NCAA outdoor finalist, advanced to Nationals. Full merged results are below.

Also qualifying for Nationals was senior hurdler Shericka Ward. Ward finished 5th in her 100 meter hurdle heat, in 13.25, and because only the top 3 in each of the three heats automatically qualify, Ward had to sit and watch the two remaining heats to see if she would advance to Nationals on time. Her 13.25 held up and she ended the competition as the 2nd fastest non-auto qualifier.

In other action today so far, Emily Lipari ran in heat 2 of the women's 1500 meters, but was never able to change gears and insert herself into the action up front. Running with what looked to be dead legs, Lipari found herself running in 11th place over the final laps. Unable to employ her usual late-race kick, Lipari finished 11th, in 4:27.35.

In the women's triple jump, Samantha Francis maxed out at 40' 0" , with a three-jump sequence of 40'0" - foul - 38'9". She finished 36th of the 48 competitors in the event.

Men's 1500 Meters

     Name               Yr   Affiliation   Time       Heat(Pl)
 1.  Andrew Bayer       JR   Indiana       3:45.44 Q   1 (1)
 2.  Ryan Hill          JR   NC St.        3:45.62 Q   1 (2)
 3.  Kyle Merber        SR   Columbia      3:45.89 Q   1 (3)
 4.  Johnathan Shawel   SR   Notre Dame    3:46.26 Q   1 (4)
 5.  Michael Hammond    JR   Va Tech       3:46.31 Q   1 (5)
 6.  Erik Berg          JR   Brown         3:46.95 q   1 (6)
 7.  Patrick Todd       JR   Virginia      3:46.96 q   1 (7)
 8.  Chris Fallon       JR   Ohio State    3:47.22     1 (8)
 9.  Chris Walizer      SR   Va Tech       3:47.49     1 (9)
10.  Tom Curr           FR   Butler        3:48.24     1 (10)
11.  Rich Peters        SO   Boston U.     3:48.36 Q   2 (1)
12.  Erik van Ingen     SR   Binghamton    3:48.37 Q   2 (2)
13.  Sam McEntee        SO   Villanova     3:48.73 Q   2 (3)
14.  Trevor Van Ackeren SR   Princeton     3:48.73 Q   2 (4)
15.  Brett Johnson      JR   Virginia      3:48.99 Q   2 (5)
16.  Julian Matthews    JR   Providence    3:49.05     2 (6)
17.  Robby Creese       FR   Penn State    3:49.07     2 (7)
18.  Mark Feigen        JR   Columbia      3:49.45     1 (11)
19.  Jeremy Rae         JR   Notre Dame    3:49.59     2 (8)
20.  Jakub Zivec        SO   Florida St    3:50.00     2 (9)
21.  Eric Speakman      FR   Stony Brook   3:50.38     2 (10)
22.  Marcus Wilkinson   SO   Belmont       3:52.47     2 (11)
23.  Steve Mangan       SO   Dartmouth     3:56.32     2 (12)
DNF  Grant Pollock      SO   Va Tech

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