March 6, 2004

Boston, Mass. - The George Mason men's track and field team competed at the IC4A Championships at the Boston University Tennis and Track Center on Saturday and there were a number of positives and one negative heading into Sunday's finals.

Three of four individuals advanced to the finals of their event on Saturday as Richard Phillips and Ricardo Melbourne qualified third and fourth, respectively, in the 55-meter hurdles. Phillips' time was 7.45 seconds while Melbourne's was 7.50 seconds. Colin Aina of Rhode Island qualified first with a time of 7.37 seconds.

Henry Harris qualified seventh in the 200-meters with a time of 21.57. He won his heat by half a second. The top seed in the event is Paulvince Obun of VMI, whose 20.85 broke the facility and meet record.

Not advancing in competition was Marc Kellman in the long jump. He finished 11th with a jump of 6.85-meters. He would have needed a jump of 7.15-meters to advance to the finals. Kellman will get a shot on Sunday in his premier event, the triple jump. Teammate Ryan McCoy competes in the event as well.

The day's big disappointment was the failure by the 4X400-meter relay team to advance. It failed to finish the race, leaving the Patriots with five individual competitors in Sunday's finals.