Feb. 1, 2008

NEW YORK - Running for the first time this season in front of a national audience at the 101st Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the George Mason 4x800-meter relay team finished in fifth place with a time of 7:45.96. The race was shown live on ESPN2, which televised an hour of coverage of the meet beginning at 7 p.m.

George Mason was one of seven college relay teams selected to run at the meet and the Patriots' team of sophomore Michael Pachella, sophomore Sam Horn, freshman Erin McWhorter and sophomore Matt Bailey performed well, finishing with the team's top time in the event this season. The team's previous best was 7:51.71 at last weekend's Patriot Games.

Arkansas won the race with a time of 7:34.18. Villanova (7:35.45) finished second and Georgetown (7:39.97) rounded out the top three. Columbia finished one spot above George Mason with a time of 7:43.76.

The Millrose Games is the oldest invitational indoor track and field meet in America. In its first 100 years, the Millrose Games hosted some of the greatest track and field athletes of all-time - among them Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Seagren, Wyomia Tyus, Miruts Yifter, Sergey Bubka, Mary Decker Slaney, Valery Brumel, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Said Auoita, Carl Lewis, Tirunesh Dibaba and Yelena Isinbayeva.

The men's track and field team heads back to New York City next weekend to compete at the Eighth Annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational at The Armory.