Three Wheaton track and field athletes meet NCAA standards, school record falls at ECAC Championship

May 16, 2008

SPRINGFIELD, MA- Three Wheaton College men's and women's outdoor track and field athletes met provisional qualification for next weekend's NCAA Championship, while one broke a school record, and the Lyons finished competition on Friday at the two-day Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship at Springfield College's Blake Track.

Wheaton's women took 16th place out of 53 scoring teams with 23 points, while the men were 33rd among 53 squads with 7.5 points. Moravian College's men and women each took first, with 88 and 57 points, respectively.

Freshman Erin Neville (North Providence, RI/La Salle Academy) recorded a height of 5' 5 1/4" during the high jump, placing second in the competition while provisionally qualifying for NCAAs. Senior Megan Brousseau (Attleboro, MA/Attleboro) also eclipsed a national meet standard, coming in third during the 1,500-meter run at 4:37.76 to break a six-year-old school record by 2.01 seconds. The time left her just 0.53 seconds short of the top New England runner.

Wheaton's 4x100-meter relay quartet came within 0.10 ticks of a provisional time, finishing in 48.75 while taking third among 31 competing foursomes. Juniors Chizoba Ezeigwe (Brockton, MA/Thayer Academy) and Morgan Jamiel (Warwick, RI/Toll Gate), sophomore Renee Thompson (Hartford, CT/Weaver) and freshman Laurenmaria Smith (Providence, RI/Hope) combined to record the fastest time among New England teams. Jamiel also competed in the heptathlon, recording 3,937 points to come within 74 of a nine-year-old school mark.

On the men's side, sophomore Howard Powell (Brooklyn, NY/Boys and Girls) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship by completing the 110-meter hurdles in 14.70, which placed him fifth overall in the race. During the high jump, freshman Marcus Kohlman (Milton, MA/Milton) tied for fourth with a height of 6' 2 1/4".

Wheaton's provisional qualifiers will find out this week whether they have qualified for next weekend's NCAA Championship, while Ezeigwe and the 4x400M relay team have already clinched spots at the meet by automatically qualifying earlier this spring. The three-day event begins on Thursday at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

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