Big East Championships preview
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
Special to www.armorytrack.com
NEW YORK - Twenty-nine years after its creation, the Big East Conference at last brings its Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships to the city of its birth.
Even though an array of athletes from Rutgers, Seton Hall and St. John's universities has played prominent roles in the meet over the years, they've all had to strut their stuff far away from their Metropolitan area home campuses.
The first 26 Big East title meets were staged at Syracuse University's Carrier Dome, and the last two at the Akron University field house.
Now all that changes.
The 29th annual Big East Championships takes place Saturday and Sunday at Manhattan's New Balance Armory Track and Field Center. Action runs from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. Sunday.
Look for a record-breaking spree at the Armory, home of the track often labeled "the world's fastest" and its top-rank field event faciliies. Both the Syracuse and Akron sites have flat tracks. The Syracuse oval is 200 meters, Akron an "oversized" 300 meters.
In the critical battle for team points, - the meet's most vital element - Notre Dame is the defending men's team champion, while Georgetown seeks a repeat women's crown.
"The Armory is a great venue, it's going to be a great meet," Rutgers coach Mike Mulqueen told members of the New York Track Writers Association at a pre-meet Monday luncheon.
And Seton Hall coach John Moon and St. John's coach Jim Hurt said "amen" to that. Each of the three Met area schools has some hot gold-medal prospects.
For Rutgers, top candidates include pole vaulter Brian Duggan, 500-meter man Steve Swern,, hurdler Kyle Grady and sprinter Bruce Owens for the men, and defending shot put champion Sylvia Galarza and distance runner Cheyenne Ogletree for the women.
At Seton Hall, there's 500-meter runner Greg Gomes, 1,000-meter standout Rob Novak (both defending Big East champions) and high jumper Nicholas Frimpong on the men's team, and 500-meter runner Alexandra McCoy for the women.
The Pirates, though, will be operating without 800-meter star James Gurr, but he's got a great explanation - he's back home in Australia running in the Aussie Olympic Trials.
At St. John's, which only fields a women's squad, there's star freshman high jumper Priscilla Frederick and 1,000-meter runner Tyneka Greene. Of course, all these are just a few of the top collegians coming to the Armory for the 16-team meet and battling it out for individual and team honors.
With 16 conference members, the Big East is the NCAA's largest Division I conference and the 13 teams coming from beyond the Metropolitan area are packed with talent, too. Perhaps the most celebrated of all Big East entries is Villanov distanceman Bobby Curtis, fourth-placer in the NCAA cross-country championships, and a 3:57.2 miler. A strong Olympic Trials hopeful , most likely in the 5,000 meters, Curtis will run the individual 3,000 meters and a leg on the Wildcats' powerful distance medley team at the Armory.
That Curtis is still running is semi-miraculous. Three years ago, a circadian rhythms disorder left him sleep-deprived and constantly weary. But long sessions of therapy eventually solved the problem, got his "z's" under control, and now he's one of the brightest distance prospects in the collegiate ranks.
The Villanova lineup also includes such notables as 400-meter defender Elvis Lewis, milers Carl Mackenzie and Michael Kerrigan, distanceman Bobby Papazian, and 1,000-meter standout Sean Tully. And then there's Villanova junior Bill Sepich, who will make some history of his own by shuttling between the Big East Swimming Championships in East Meadow, N.Y. and the track meet in Manhattan.
As a swimmer, he'll do the 100-yard backstroke and the relays, as a runner the 1,000 meters.
As someone at the writers luncheon suggested, all he'd then need to be an Olympic triathlon hopeful would be a bicycle. Distance runners Lilian Jelimo and Jill Glassmeyer, and pole vaulter Brittany Kliam are top Cincinnati women's entries.
Strong Connecticut men's medal candidates include high jumpers Ellis Gaulden and Tyrone Faverey, shot putter Andrew Dubs, and a powerful middle and longer distance group. The UConn women's team features a strong sprint trio in Jessica Foreman (defending 60-meter champion), Trisha-Ann Hawthorne and Monique Hodges; 400-meter defender Mandela Graves-Fulgham, high jumper Carin Knight and shot putter Tynisha McMilian.
Leading men for DePaul include 200-meter dashman Patrick Smith and 400 man Ryan Moore. Top DePaul women's candidates include 800-meter runner mary Kate Quiett, distance runner Terah Cheatham, and shot putter Ebonie Cobb.
Georgetown's talent-laden squad includes sprint stars Kenny Mitchell and Spenser Carter, milers Andrew Bumbalough and Ayalew Taye, 800 runner Danny Harris and 1,000 man Matt DeBole on the men's side. For the Hoya women, there are title defenders Ashley Hubbard in the 500 and Elizabeth Maloy in the 3,000 meters, along with miler Joanna Rodgers for the women.
Louisville's men's team features shot put defender Steve Hnat, triple jumper Seon Powell, weight thrower Andrew Hackney, distance runner Michael Eaton, miler Luc Schout, 800 runner Chris Danks and long jumper Rudon Bastian, and top women are Seidre Forde in the triple jump, Theresa Lewis in the hurdles, and Jere Summers in the shot put.
The Marquette women's team is led by miler Cassie Peller, 1000-meter runner Kaitlyn Chambers, sprinter and hurdler Erynn James; heptathlete Tom Sage and sprinter Tyler O'Brien are top men's candidates.
Power-packed Notre Dame sends such men's stars as miler Jake Watson, distance man Kurt Benninger, heptathlete Justin Schneider and 800 runners John Cavanaugh and Kelly Lanhans, and the Irish women's team has pentathlete Alyissa Hasan, weight thrower Anna Weber and sprinter Brienne Davis.
Pittsburgh’s top men's entries include two-time high hurdles champion Mike Wray. miler Sam Bair and pole vaulter Ron Walter, with long jump defender Janessa Murphy, sprinter Shantea Calhoun, hurdler Mycaiah Clemons and distance runner Amy Ruffalo top women's entrants.
As usual, Providence is loaded with middle and longer distance talent, headed by one-mile defender Max Smith and miler Haydon McLaren on the men's team, and Danette Doetzel and Emma Person for the women.
South Florida's top women's hopefuls include high jumper Lou Tisha Hall, shot putter Taylor Stallings, pole vaulter Denise von Eynatten and long jumper Vanetta Randle. Heptathlete Mike Chiro and hurdler Ramon Sosa are star entries for the Syracuse men; distance runner Stacie Boyle and Catherine DeSarle and high jumper Jillian Drouin are leading Syracuse women.
West Virginia's women will be led by 1,000-meter runner Marie Louise Asselin,miler Keri Bland, long jumper Alexis Noel, and pole vaulter Maggie Smith. Following Big East tradition, the team titles are likely to come down to the concluding relays, where team depth becomes a critical factor.
