May 31, 2008
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Senior Bobby Curtis (Louisville, Ky.) automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships next month by winning the 5000 meter race on Friday at the NCAA East Regional at Florida State University's Mike Long Track. In addition, three other Villanova runners advanced to the finals of their respective events.
Curtis came in first out of 24 runners in the 5000 meter run with a time of 14:06.01. He beat Sean Quigley of La Salle and the rest of the field by 1.62 seconds to qualify for the national championship race. His win earned the Wildcats 10 team points as well.
Villanova garnered a total of 15 team points on Friday, with the other five coming from senior Marco Radocaj (Williamsport, Pa.) in the javelin. Radocaj registered a distance of 68.54 meters to come in fourth out of 26 competitors in the event. Like Curtis, he is automatically qualified for the national championship.
Junior Elvis Lewis (West Hempstead, N.Y.) led all runners with a time of 46.15 in the preliminaries of the 400 meter dash. The top eight runners advanced to Saturday's final, which will go off at 5:20 p.m. In the 1500 meter run, senior Michael Kerrigan (Stroudsburg, Pa.) and freshman Carl Mackenzie (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) rated ninth and 11th, respectively, in the preliminaries and each advanced to the final on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Kerrigan posted a time of 3:49.05 on Friday and Mackenzie a mark of 3:48.44. The top 12 runners all advanced to the final round.
Lewis, Kerrigan and Mackenzie will be in action on Saturday along with sophomore Dan Lewis (Staten Island, N.Y.). Lewis will race in the 3000 meter steeplechase at 6:40 p.m.
In other results on Friday, senior Patrick Gazzini (Somers, N.Y.) ran in the preliminaries of the 400 meter hurdles and came in ninth out of 34 entries with a time of 51.47. He missed the top eight and a spot in the finals by just 21 hundredths of a second. Senior Mark Korich (Wyndmoor, Pa.) came in 22nd in the preliminaries of the 800 meter run with a time of 1:50.96.
Visit www.villanova.com on Saturday night for a full recap of the day's events.
