Jan. 27, 2008

BOSTON, Mass. - The Men's and Women's Indoor Track Team competed this past weekend in the annual Terrier Classic at Boston University. The weekend was highlighted with many great performances, but none better than sophomore Hayden McLaren (Christchurch, New Zealand), who ran a sub-four minute mile on Saturday. McLaren finished the mile in a time of 3:59.50, earning him a trip to the University of Arkansas on March 14th for the NCAA Championships.

McLaren was not the only Friar to qualify for the NCAA's at the Terrier Classic, as junior Danette Doetzel (Macklin, Sask.) won the 5000m in a time of 16:26.25, good enough for a trip to Arkansas. Doetzel ran away from the competition, beating the second-place runner by nearly 30 seconds. Also running well for the women was sophomore Krystal Douglas (Harpswell, Maine) and sophomore Breffini Twohigh (Dublin, Ireland) who placed sixth (9:34.98) and 11th (9:47.12) in the 3000m, respectively. Douglas's time was good enough to qualify her for the ECAC Championships and both girls times qualified them for the BIG EAST Championships.

In the men's meet on Saturday, McLaren stole the show winning the mile in an NCAA Automatic time of 3:59.50. Off a slow first 400m of almost 64 seconds, the group went through the half in 2:02 and the 1200m mark in just over 3:00. Hayden's race and many others can be found on www.flocasts.org.

Also running well for the Friars was junior Richard Yeates (Dublin, Ireland) who won the second section of the 3000m, posting a time of 8:19.70. Junior Nick Berluti (Westwood, Mass.) also took first in the second section of the 1000m, finishing in a time of 2:28.44 and senior James Lourenco (West Warwick, R.I.) finished 5th (1:52.29) in the first section. Also in the men's mile was senior Chris McDermott (West Haven, Conn.) who ran a BIG EAST and IC4A qualifying time of 4:14.04.

Later Saturday night at the Reggie Lewis Center, were the Reebok Boston Indoor Games. Senior Max Smith (Dunedin, New Zealand) represented the Friars in the men's mile finishing 9th in a time of 4:03.35. PC also had many former Friars racing in the meet. Kim Smith ran under the current world record for the two-mile, finishing second (9:13.34) to the 2004 Olympic Champion and 2007 World Champion, Meseret Defar of Ethiopia. Defar set the new world record for two miles, with a time of 9:10.50. The old world record was set in 2002 by Regina Jacobs, who ran it in a time of 9:23.38. In the women's mile, Roisin McGettigan finished in third (4:33.96).

Pictures from the Boston Indoor Games can be found here: http://www.letsrun.com/2008/reebokboston/index6.html.

The Providence College Men's and Women's Indoor Track team will compete next at Yale University in the Giegengack Invitational on Friday, February 1st and Saturday, February 2nd. The meet is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.

GO FRIARS!