April 17, 2008

The men's and women's track teams will head to Williamsburg this weekend to compete in the CAA Championships. The annual two-day event is being hosting by the College of William and Mary this year, beginning Friday at 9:30 a.m. with the women's javelin.

The women's team boasts four individual and two relay ECAC Championship qualifiers. Sophomore Tiara Swindell has qualified for two events this spring, the 200- and 400 meter dash. Swindell clocked her qualifying times the last time Mason competed in Williamsburg for the Colonial Relays in early April, running the 200 in 24.22 and the 400 in 55.38. Junior Murielle Ahoure qualified as welll, running a team season-best time of 54.77 in the 400.

Sophomore Asia Odum earned a spot in the ECAC Championships in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.20 seconds. Rounding out the current individual ECAC qualifiers for Mason is junior Ryann Hendricks with a triple jump mark of 12.30 meters. In relay action, Mason's 4x100 and 4x400 meter teams have met ECAC qualifiers, running times of 46.68 and 3:49.03, respectively.

The men's track and field team has already had two seniors qualify for the NCAA East Regional Championships. In the 110-meter hurdles, Brian Hay ran a qualifying time of 14.30 seconds and in the triple jump, Ryan McCoy's jump of 15.41 meters met the qualifier as well.

The men's team has also had three other individuals and two relay teams qualify for the IC4A Championships. Sophomore Michael Pachella has qualified in the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:51.11. Joining him will be two teammates in the 400-meter hurdles. Juniors Mutsa Nyakbau and Nate Harris have each earned a spot in the IC4A Championships with times of 53.37 and 53.51 seconds respectively. The 4x100-meter and 4x800 meter relay teams have each qualified as well.

Both Mason teams will look to improve on their sixth place finishes from a year ago at the CAA Championships. The women will look to challenge reigning champion Northeastern while UNC Wilmington will attempt to defend its title on the men's side of the competition.