Feb. 22, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Providence College men's and women's track teams will compete at the 2008 BIG EAST Indoor Track Championships at The Armory in New York, N.Y. on February 23-24.

On the first day of competition (Saturday, Feb. 23), the Friars will take part in will take part in 10 events. Brian Stannard (East Longmeadow, Mass.) will start things off for PC in the men's 400 meter dash trials (2:15 p.m.). Emma Perron (West Hartford, Conn.) and Stephen Hankinson (Summit, N.J.) will follow in the women's and men's trials for the mile run. Perron's group on the women's side is slated to begin at roughly 2:30 p.m. Hankinson's trial begins immediately after at 2:45 p.m. The Friars' Max Smith (Dunedin, New Zealand) has earned the BIG EAST Indoor title in the mile in each of the last two seasons, but will not compete in the mile at the BIG EAST Championship in 2008 as he recovers from a minor illness. Smith, however, will be a member of two relay teams for the Friars (distance medley relay and the 4x800).

At 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Lewin Richards will run the men's 200 meter dash trials. Hayden McLaren (Christchurch, New Zealand) will compete in the mens 1,000 meter trials at 3:45 p.m., followed by James Lourenco's (West Warwick, R.I.) run in the men's 800 meter trials at 4:15 p.m.

Later in the day, three women and two men will compete in the 5,000 meter finals. The women's final begins at 5:00 p.m. and will feature Krystal Douglas (Harpswell, Maine), Michelle Childs (Cameron, Ontario) and Sarah Morgan (Waikato, New Zealand). The men's 5,000 meter final is scheduled for 4:55 p.m. and will feature Ahmed Haji (West Hartford, Conn.) and Richard Yeates (Dublin, Ireland).

The last two events of the day that Providence will compete in are the women's and men's distance medley relay finals. Breffini Twohig (Dublin, Ireland), Katie Elliot (Penfield, N.Y.), Katherine Schock (Norwood, Mass.) and Danette Doetzel (Macklin, Saskatchewan) will team up for the women and begin competition at 5:15 p.m. At 5:40 p.m., Chris McDermott (West Haven, Conn.), Charles Dewey (Worcester, Mass.), Nick Berluti (Westwood, Mass.) and Smith will compete on the men's side.

On the final day of competition (Sunday, Feb. 24), the women's and men's 1,000 meter finals will take place at 11:20 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., respectively. The men's 800 meter final is slated for 11:50 a.m. The women's and men's final in the mile are scheduled for 12:40 p.m. and 12:50 p.m., respectively. The men's 400 meter dash final will take place at 1:30 p.m. and will consist of two sections. The Friars' participation in the above mentioned finals will be determined on Saturday, Feb. 23 by their finish in the trials.

Later in the afternoon on February 24, the Providence men's track team will participate in two relay finals. At 2:45 p.m. a team will compete in the 4 x 800 meter relay. At 3:05 p.m., the Friars also will have a men's team put together for the 4 x 400 meter relay. The women's team will compete in the 4 x 800 meter relay at 2:35 p.m.

A recap and results will be posted for the BIG EAST Indoor Track Championships will be posted following each day of competition. Results also may be found at the league's web site at www.bigeast.org. Once on the main page, click on Indoor Track and navigate to the Championship Central link.