Bobby Curtis Named Most Outstanding Track Athlete at BIG EAST Championships :: Senior distance runner wins top honor as Villanova places fourth at conference meet

Senior distance runner wins top honor as Villanova places fourth at conference meet

Feb. 24, 2008

Complete Villanova Results (Day 2)
Overall Day 2 Results
Complete Big East Results (Days 1-2)

NEW YORK -- Senior Bobby Curtis (Louisville, Ky.) was named the Most Outstanding Track Athlete at the BIG EAST Indoor Track & Field Championships and Villanova crowned three individual champions to place fourth at the conference meet held at the New York Armory. The Wildcats also claimed league titles in the 4x800 and distance medley relays at the two-day event.

Curtis was the individual champion in the 3000 meter run and ran on both of the winning relay quartets. He posted a winning time of 8:02.91 in the 3000 meters at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday and then came back less than 20 minutes later to run in the 4x800 relay. The 4x800 relay squad finished in 7:26.24 to set a meet record and beat out Georgetown by just one-tenth of a second.

Villanova finished with 79 points in the team standings to come in behind Connecticut, Notre Dame and Georgetown. The Huskies won the conference championship on both the men's and women's sides and totaled 167 points on the men's side.

Freshman Carl Mackenzie (Lower Hutt, New Zealand) emerged as champion in the 1000 meter run with a winning time of 2:23.77 in the finals on Sunday and junior Elvis Lewis (West Hempstead, N.Y.) won the 400 meter dash with a time of 47.79. Each had been seeded first in their respective events after yesterday's preliminary heats.

Junior Sean Tully (Syosset, N.Y.) placed third in the 800 meters with a time of 1:53.80 and freshman Jason Apwah (Roxbury, N.J.) delivered a strong finish in fourth place with a mark of 1:54.14. Additionally, senior Michael Kerrigan (Stroudsburg, Pa.) took sixth in the mile in 4:09.46.

The only Wildcat to run in two individual finals on Sunday was senior Kevin Okolie (Dix Hills, N.Y.). Okolie placed fourth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.91 and was sixth in the 60 meter dash after crossing in 6.93 seconds.

Senior John Morse (South Elgin, Ill.) finished seventh in the 500 meter dash (1:03.91) and sophomore Shane Loh (Stratham, N.H.) tied for 10th place in the high jump (1.87m).

See the links at the top of this release for complete Villanova results from Sunday's action and for the entire results from the conference meet this weekend.

Remaining on the indoor schedule this season are the IC4A Championship on March 8-9 and the NCAA Championships on March 14-15. Members of the Wildcat team will also compete at the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame on March 7-8.