March 9, 2008

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - On the weekend before selections are announced for the NCAA Championships later this months, three Villanova runners posted NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 800 meter run at the Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday at Loftus Arena.

In the elite `Wilson' section of the 800 meter run, junior Sean Tully (Syosset, N.Y.) finished third out of 12 runners with a time of 1:49.39. He was closely followed by senior Mark Korich (Wyndmoor, Pa.) with a time of 1:49.97 (fifth place) and freshman Jason Apwah (Ledgewood, N.J.) with a mark of 1:50.05 (sixth).

Those times were the fastest marks of the season for each of the three Wildcat athletes and the first time this year that any of the three had registered an NCAA provisional time in this particular event. The selections for the NCAA Championship meets will be announced on Monday.

Tully has posted three strong performances in the 800 meters this season, finishing third at the BIG EAST Championships last month and fourth at the Penn State National Open in January. He and Apwah placed third and fourth, respectively, at the BIG EAST meet. Apwah lowered his time from the conference finals more than four seconds in this weekend's race.

In addition to the three entries in the 800 meter run, Villanova had four other individuals competing at the Alex Wilson meet this weekend. Freshman Carl Mackenzie (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) and senior Michael Kerrigan (Stroudsburg, Pa.) each ran the mile, with Mackenzie finishing 11th out of 25 runners with a time of 4:07.00. He had already posted an NCAA provisional qualifying time earlier this season when he ran 4:00.25 at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. Kerrigan finished 24th in this weekend's race with a mark of 4:19.55.

Freshmen Garrett Kroner (Oakland, N.J.) and Christopher Giunta (Sands Point, N.Y.) ran in the 400 meter dash and crossed in eighth and ninth place, respectively. Kroner's time was 48.49 while Giunta finished in 48.96.