May 25, 2006
GREENSBORO, N.C. - George Mason's men's and women's track and field teams will compete at the NCAA East Regional Championships at Irwin Belk Track in Greensboro, N.C. on May 26 and 27 with a berth in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif. at stake.
The top five finishers in each event will automatically advance to the National Championships, with the next seven finishers all placed on the at-large list. Those who make the National Championships from the at-large list will be determined based on their top performance during the season.
The men's team, fresh off a first-place finish at the IC4A Championships two weeks ago, will compete in five events at the meet - the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, the triple jump and the high jump, while the women's team will compete in three events - the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay.
Senior Richard Phillips (St. Catherine, Jamaica/Ardenne) will appear in the NCAA East Regional Championships for the third time in his career, competing in both the 110-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash for the Patriots. His first-place finish at the Texas Relays on April 8 in 13.71 seconds ranks as the 10th fastest time in the nation in the 110-meter hurdles this season and the third fastest time in the East Region. Among East Regional competitors, only South Carolina's Jason Richardson (13.51 seconds) and Maryland's Dominic Berger (13.67 seconds) have better times than Phillips. The senior will also run in the 200-meter dash after qualifying for the event at the IC4A Championships with a time of 21.08 seconds in the preliminary heats. He won the IC4A title in the finals the next day.
Two triple jumpers - senior Marc Kellman (Coram, N.Y./Longwood/West Virginia) and junior Ryan McCoy (Roanoke, Va./William Fleming) - will represent George Mason at the championships. Kellman, the national runner-up in the triple jump during the indoor season, has the ninth-best mark in the nation and the third-best jump in the East Region this season with a leap of 16.05 meters at the Texas Relays on April 8. McCoy, the CAA and IC4A Champion in the event, is right behind Kellman in the national and regional rankings, ranking 11th in the nation and fourth in the East Region with a personal-best mark of 15.99 meters at the IC4A Championships on May 14. Only two athletes in the region have posted better marks than Kellman and McCoy during the season. Florida State's Rafeeq Curry (16.44 meters) and Bethune-Cookman's Louis Brown (16.18 meters) rank 1-2 in the East Region in the triple jump.
Senior Quentin Matthews (Chesapeake, Va./Deep Creek) qualified for the championships in the high jump, recording a mark of 2.15 meters to finish in first place at the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational on April 15. Matthews' mark is the sixth best jump in the East Region this season.
Another senior, Sammy Sesay (Hyattsville, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt), will run in the 100-meter dash at the championships. Sesay qualified for the regional championships by capturing the IC4A title in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.55 seconds on May 14.
Freshman Murielle Ahoure (Lorton, Va./Hayfield Secondary) will compete in both the 100- and 200-meter dash for the women's team. She currently ranks eighth in the East Region in the 100-meter dash (11.49 seconds) and seventh in the region in the 200-meter dash (23.33 seconds). Ahoure, who has captured the CAA and ECAC titles in both the 100- and 200-meter dash during her sensational freshman season, will also run on the 4x100-meter relay, teaming with freshman Ryann Hendricks (Chicago, Ill./Chicago Christian), freshman Brittanie Williams (Richmond, Va./Armstrong) and junior Melissa Kryfka (Midlothian, Va./Clover Hill). The relay team qualified for the regional championships by capturing the CAA title in the event with a time of 46.15 seconds on April 22 in Richmond, Va.
The first day of action at the NCAA East Regional Championships will begin on Friday, with George Mason athletes competing in the preliminary heats of six events during the day. Those events include the women's 4x100-meter relay at 4 p.m., the men's 110-meter hurdles at 5:40 p.m., the women's 100-meter dash at 6:40 p.m., the men's 100-meter dash at 7 p.m., the women's 200-meter dash at 8:40 p.m. and the men's 200-meter dash at 9 p.m.
