June 9, 2009
Official NCAA Championships Site
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.: June 9, 2009 - Sending a solid contingent of 13 athletes, the Nittany Lion Track and Field team is poised and ready to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, scheduled to begin on Wednesday, June 10, at John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas. Nine Nittany Lions will get their first chance to compete on Wednesday, as preliminaries for many of the events are on the schedule.
First up will be senior John Vellenoweth (Wheeling, W.Va.) in the pole vault, which is set for 4:30 p.m. CDT. Vellenoweth received an at-large bid to the championships, thanks to a school-record clearance of 17-feet, 5 and ½ inches (5.32m) during the regular season. Also in the field will be redshirt junior Ryan Fritz (Parkesburg, Pa.), who will compete in the high jump. Fritz - who enters the competition with a season-best of 7-1 (2.16) - will be making his fourth-career appearance at an NCAA event. The high jump is scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. CDT.
Nittany Lion duo Bianca Fung (North Babylon, N.Y.) and Gayle Hunter (Riverside, Calif.) will take on the NCAA field in the long jump, following a three-four finish in the event at the NCAA East Regional Championships. Hunter will be in search of her second All-America finish in the event after taking fifth last year, while Fung - only a sophomore - will face NCAA competition for the first time in her career. Fung and Hunter are slated to begin competition at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
In the throws, Lion sophomores Kim Hanslovan (DuBois, Pa.) and Karlee McQuillen (Johnstown, Pa.) will compete in the javelin throw, both entering the competition with season bests ranking among the top eight. McQuillen finished ninth as a rookie in 2008, while Hanslovan will make her first career NCAA appearance, when the event begins at 5:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday.
The Lions will also be well represented on the track, with sophomore Ryan Foster (Tasmania, Australia) set to compete in the 800-meter preliminaries at 5:45 p.m. CDT. Foster finished fourth in the East Region in the event - good for an automatic-qualifying spot. Junior Fawn Dorr (Akron, N.Y.) will also open up her weekend in the preliminaries, entering the meet as the fifth-seed in the 400-meter hurdles. Dorr is already a two-time NCAA All-American, earning honors in the 4x400-meter relay during the past two indoor seasons. The quarter hurdles are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Both the 800 and the 400-meter hurdles will feature three rounds throughout the weekend.
Junior Bridget Franek (Hiram, Ohio) will look to follow up her bronze-medal finish in 2008, with another outstanding performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Franek won the East Region for the second-straight year in the event and enters the competition as the third seed. The steeple preliminaries are scheduled for 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday.
Action begins on Wednesday and runs through Saturday, June 13. Follow www.GoPSUsports.com for full results and Nittany Lions recaps at the conclusion of each day of competition. Live feeds of each day will also be available at NCAA.com.