Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
19 Princeton Athletes To Compete at NCAA East Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championships
May 22, 2007 | Men's Track and Field
An impressive contingent of 19 Princeton men's and women's track and field athletes will head to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend to compete in the 2007 NCAA East Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Florida's Percy Beard Track.
15 runners and four field athletes will compete for Princeton at the regional championships, which begin Friday. The top five finishers in each individual event at the meet automatically qualify for the NCAA championship meet June 6-9 in Sacramento, Calif., and several others could qualify depending on results from the other regional meets this weekend.
Nine Princeton women will compete this weekend, eight of whom are distance runners. On the men's side, six distance runners and four field athletes will attempt to qualify for the national meet, beginning with Alex Pessala in the hammer throw at noon on Friday in the meet's first event.
Pessala is one of two outdoor Heptagonal winners on the men's side to qualify for the regional meet, joining high jumper Justin Frick, the IC4A champion who competes on Saturday afternoon.
Four Princeton Heps champions on the women's side will compete in this weekend's regional meet, though only two of them will run in the events they won at Heps, sophomore Agatha Offorjebe in the 400 meters and freshman Liz Costello in the 1,500 meters. Both Catha Mullen, the Heps 3,000-meter champion, and Jolee VanLeuven, the Heps 10,000-meter champion, will run in the 5,000 meters at the East Regional.
The 5,000-meter races for both the men and women will be the only running finals held on Saturday. David Nightingale, Michael Maag and Frank Tinney will run for Princeton in the men's 5,000 and 8:10, while Mullen, VanLeuven and Christy Johnson will run in the women's 5,000 at 8:50 p.m.
Also on Friday, senior Andrew Park competes in the men's pole vault for Princeton beginning at 3 p.m. On Saturday, Eric Plummer will take part in the shot put competition starting at 6:00.
Princeton will have five competitors in the steeplechase finals late Saturday night in Brett Campfield and Bryan Sharkey on the men's side and Reilly Kiernan, Jen Johnson and Megan Brandeland on the women's side, while Caroline Mullen will join Costello in the women's 1,500 prelims on Friday afternoon. The 1,500 men's and women's finals are on Saturday evening, and the Tigers also hope to qualify on the men's side when James O'Toole competes in the prelims on Friday.
Complete meet results and information can be found here.