College Roundup Big track wins for Providence pair

By John Manley

The IC4A (men) and ECAC (women) outdoor track and field championships at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. saw two Irish runners post wins, while a couple more were runners-up. Providence’s Marie McMahon tuned up for this weekend’s NCAA championships in Buffalo, N.Y., with an easy victory in the women’s 3,000-meter run. The senior from Ennistymon, Co. Clare, covered the ground in 9 minutes, 10.58 seconds. Her nearest pursuer, Georgetown’s Kristen Gordon, was next across in 9:25.24. Providence’ Stephanie O’Reilly, a freshman from Wicklow, placed 7th with a time of 9:38.29. McMahon earned 10 points and O’Reilly 2 for the Friars, which placed 8th in the team standings. The host school, with 61 points, won the team trophy by three points over Seton Hall.

Another Providence runner, Sarah Dupre, denied Boston University’s Rosemary Ryan the winner’s laurels in the women’s 5,000 meters. Ryan, a senior from Dublin, earned the place position with a clocking of 16:24.89, which was two seconds slower than Dupre. The third finisher didn’t cross until another 23 ticks had elapsed. Ryan’s time was well clear of the NCAA provisional mark of 16:46, although shy of the 16:16 needed to automatically qualify in the event. She earned 8 points with her second-place finish, the only time B.U. got on the scoreboard at the meet.

Providence sophomore Keith Kelly from Drogheda came up a winner in the mens’ 10,000-meter run. Kelly put 10 points on the board for the Friars when he broke the tape in 29:46.16, which earns him provisional status for the NCAAs. The second finisher, Georgetown’s Justin McCarthy, was long in 29:55.64. Kelly’s points were the only ones the Friars posted in the IC4A meet.

Yale’s Peter Coghlan and Notre Dame’s Errol Williams each won their preliminary heats in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles with times of 14.10, the fastest recorded among the four heats that were used to winnow down the field. They settled the issue of supremacy in the finals, in which Coghlan, a senior from Dublin, settled for second place. Williams reached the tape first in 13.88, with Coghlan on his heels in 13.94. The 8 points Coghlan earned with his run were all that Yale earned in any event. Coghlan’s time makes him a provisional qualifier for the nationals.

Other participants were Iona’s Padraic Buckley, a senior from Cork, who ran the 5,000 meters in 15:11.96, good for 29th place. The race was won by his teammate, Ricardo Santos, in 14:01.30, so Dublin’s Mick Byrne, the Iona coach, has himself a provisional qualifier for Buffalo. Princeton’s Hugh Kennedy, a sophomore from Dublin, placed 12th in the men’s hammer throw. His best heave touched down at 52.70 meters. Virginia Tech’s Erik Kingston ruled this crew with a winning distance of 64.92 meters.