March 9, 2002
Results
VILLANOVA, PA. ----- The Villanova University men's distance medley relay team was crowned NCAA Champions on Friday, March 8 at the 2002 Division I Men's & Women's Indoor Championships held at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The men's DMR team ran a time of 9:31.00 to outdistance Wisconsin, who placed second with a time of 9:32.31.
Members of the team included Michael Brown (Mt. Laurel, N.J.), junior Adrian Blincoe (Auckland, New Zealand), and sophomores Jason Jabaut (Peru, N.Y.) and Ryan Hayden (Richmond, Canada).
It is the first time in 22 years that the men's DMR has claimed NCAA Indoor Championship status and the first Indoor Championship for the Wildcats in 12 years.
Earlier in the season the men's DMR team set a Villanova school record at the Alex Wilson Invitational at the University of Notre Dame with a time of 9:29.57. Their time shattered the old record set on Feb. 13, 1982 (9:35.37) and came within 0.8 seconds of the collegiate and world record time (9:28.83, set by Stanford on 3/10/00) at the meet on March 3.
On Saturday, March 9, Blincoe and Hayden will compete in the 3,000-meter finals. Blincoe enters the race as the No. 1 seed after running a school-record time of 7:47.50 breaking the 15-year old Villanova record set by Gerry O'Reilly (7:51.65 on 2/14/87). The pair of Wildcat runners will compete at 7:40 p.m.
On the women's side, the Villanova women's DMR team placed 10th in the finals with a time of 11:32.13. The women's team consists of sophomore Rebecca Mitchell (Geneva, Ill.) and freshmen Nicole Bridgewood (Bohemia, N.Y.), Ioana Parusheva (Sliven, Bulgaria), and Kalin Toedebusch (Rockford, Mich.).
In the women's 60-meter high hurdle preliminaries, senior Sherese Price (Pleasantville, N.J.) placed 13th with a time of 8.44
For more information on Villanova's Indoor Track & Field program, please contact Director of Media Relations, Dean Kenefick, at 610.519.6514 or via email at dean.kenefick@villanova.edu.
2002 NCAA ChampionsMen's Distance Medley Relay Team Split Times*1.) 1,200-meters Ryan Hayden 2:55.002.) 400-meters Michael Brown 46.903.) 800-meters Jason Jabut 1:50.304.) 1,600-meters Adrian Blincoe 3:58.00
* Split times are unofficial
