April 30, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, PA -­­­ A seasoned group of veteran runners will lead the La Salle University Track & Field teams north this weekend to compete on Saturday, May 3^rd- Sunday, May 4^th in the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA.  Video coverage will be provided via CBS College Sports All-Access.    

The Championships will also be a homecoming for senior Sean Quigley (Braintree, MA/Archbishop Williams), the six-time All-American who has qualified for two Olympic Trials events (10k, 5k) this year and hails from the Bay State.  He will be defending his 5K crown a year after setting a Championship record in 2007 in 14:10.79.  He has already smashed that time this year at the Mt. SAC Relays in 13:30.25.

For the women, senior Rachel Papin (Philadelphia, PA/ St. Hubert's) will be defending her back-to-back A-10 titles in the 5K.  She is already an NCAA Championships provisional qualifier in the 5K in 16:33.39. 

Rhode Island is the defending A-10 Champion, and has won the event in six out of the past seven years.  Events begin each day at 8:45 AM and the awards ceremony will be held at 3:15 PM on Sunday. 

Any event winner that has an NCAA qualifying time will make NCAA Regionals, held on May 30^th-31^st at Florida State University.  The Explorers already have a handful of NCAA qualifiers including: Quigley, Papin, Christa Plummer, Carolyn Lipovsky and Korey Edwards.  Several Explorer runners are on the bubble and could qualify for NCAA times at the A-10 Championships. 

The top five finishers at NCAA Regionals in each individual event and the top three finishers in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.  The NCAA Championships will be held June 11^th-14^th at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.  Quigley has already qualified for both the 10k and 5K events and will run on Thursday, June 12^th at 7:50 PM EST.

For the second consecutive year, live audio and video streaming of the Championship will be available for $7.95 per day.  Annual subscribers to All-Access for A-10 teams participating in the Championship and XXL annual subscribers will be able to view the action at no charge.  Click the link at the top of this story to subscribe to this event.