Owen Kiely ’06 and Wes Fuhrman ’05 eclipsed the provisional NCAA division III qualifying time in the men’s 5,000-meter race and Ellen Davis ’07 qualified provisionally for the women’s NCAA Division III 5,000-meter in the second Cardinal Invitational of the indoor season. The event, which took place this past Saturday, had no team scoring, but the men and women combined for eighteen top-eight individual finishes in the meet.
For Kiely and Fuhrman, a trip to the NCAA meet would be their second this academic year. In the fall Kiely earned All-American honors, finishing 12th of 211 runners at the NCAA division III cross-country meet, while Fuhrman finished 37th. On Saturday both men qualified provisionally for the indoor track NCAAs by running the 5,000-meter event in less then 14:55. Kiely took first place honors, finishing in 14:52.60, while Fuhrman came in second with a time of 4:54.87. As of last weekend, only two other male runners in the country had qualified for the NCAA meet.
“Wes and I headed into the 5k hoping to hit an auto mark for nationals, or at least get close enough that we could be confident about our place on the provisional list,” said Kiely. “We came up a little shy of the auto, and the school record, but considering the lack of competition, and the fact that we are still very early in the season, I feel pretty good about the effort. We had already dropped our pacers and having to run the last mile and a half uncontested hurt our time.”
Like her teammates on the men’s side, Davis is looking for her second trip to an NCAA meet this academic year. Her 15th place finish in the women’s NCAA division III cross-country meet this fall earned her All-American honors in her second trip to the meet. Saturday was Davis’s first return to competition since November and she picked up right where she left off despite feeling under the weather. Running the 5,000 meter event in 17:33.77, Davis qualified provisionally for NCAAs with more than 21 seconds to spare. The second place finisher in the race was more than 55 seconds off Davis’s blazing pace.
There were many other fine performances from Wes runners and throwers on Saturday. The men had a total of ten top-eight finishes. In the 500-meter event, Brad Litchfield ’09 earned a third place finish while graduate student Seth Warren finished seventh. Nik Gavelis ’08 finished third in the 800-meter and Nate Huddell ’07 ran to fifth place in the mile. In what Kiely cited as the best race of the day, Nick Holowka set a personal record with a 9:08.46 3000 meter and earned a fourth place finish. Behind Kiely and Fuhrman, Alex Battaglino ’07 and Anda Greeney ’07 finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 5,000-meter to give the Cardinals four of the top eight spots in that event. Finally, the Wes 4×400 relay team of Warren, Andres Rosario ’08, Taylor Bentley ’06, and Litchfield turned in a fourth place finish.
On the women’s side, Stephanie O’Brien ’08 won the 500-meter event for the second time this indoor season with a time of 1:21.50, over a second faster than her first victory. Cara Chebuske ’06 took third in the 800-meter and Anna Schindler ’09 took second in the 1,000-meter. Erin Smith and Lucia Pier finished third and seventh in the 5,000 meter. Combined, the Wes men and women dominated the 5,000-meter event, taking seven of the sixteen top spots in the two races. The women’s 4x400m relay team came in with a fourth place finish.
Captain Kristy Williams ’06 brought home the Cardinals only top-eight finish in a throwing event, placing 3rd in the shot put.
Both the men and women’s teams will travel to Smith College this weekend for its Co-Ed Invitational.
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