Athletics Ireland, Sunday, November 14th, 2010 Four Irish runners have qualified for Monday week’s NCAA cross country championships, while a fifth will have to wait to see if an ‘at large’ pick will see her through after a day of thrills at the Division 1 Regional cross country championships.
In the South Regional Ciaran O’Lionaird (Leevale AC) achieved a significant milestone in his running career to date with an impressive win in Hoover Alabama. With 2k to go the race was down to four with O’Lionaird well placed amongst two Kenyans and a South African. With 400m to go O’Lionaird kicked and was able to ease down in the last 100m with the race won.
A herniated disc in his back was diagnosed early in the year that kept him from training and racing for a long period. He has settled back into training and used the early season races as training runs rather than all out efforts.
“We did what we came to do,” Florida men’s coach Bob Braman said. “We qualified and ran really well so it was a great thing. It was good to see all of our guys go out there and run well and stay injury free. It really opened up for Ciaran and he kicked it in to get the win.”
The women’s race at the same venue saw Hollie Knight (Finn Valley AC) run another good race to finish fifth, just over three seconds behind the winner, and within striking distance of the three ahead of her.
“Holly ran a personal best again for the 6K distance, and secured her NCAA spot with a fifth place finish,” Auburn coach Mark Carroll said.
She will now turn her focus to making her second trip to the NCAA Championships Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Ind.
“Holly will take a couple of days to recover from today’s efforts, and then start her preparation for the NCAA meet in Terra Haute,” Carroll said.
At the South Central Regional in Waco Texas David Rooney (Raheny Shamrocks AC) was another to have a good run with a sixth place finish.
The Cowboy standout posted a 30:23.5 clocking for the 10 K race. He was the only McNeese athlete – man or woman – to qualify for the nationals. Rooney was also the lead runner among athletes from the Southland Conference.
Craig Murphy (Togher AC) will head to Nationals with his Iona College team. He was 82nd in the Northeast Regional in Madison Connecticut.
Charlotte Ffrench O’Carroll (Dundrum South Dublin AC) will have to wait for the ‘at large’ selections to see if her Providence College team will have a place in Nationals. She finished 21st in the Northeast Regional.
NCAA D-1 South Regional, 2010 Hoover, AL
Men 10k Run CC
1 O’Lionaird, Ciaran SR Florida State 30:03.34
2 Kemei, Carrison SO Alabama 30:05.80
3 Bor, Julius SR Alabama 30:06.96
4 Hlaselo, Dumisani JR Florida 30:11.85
5 Rop, Joel JR Alabama 30:13.23
6 Kirui, Barnabas SR Ole Miss 30:15.66
7 Cheruiyot, Ben JR Auburn 30:19.33
8 Kirwa, Emmanuel SR Chattanooga 30:22.31
9 Kiptoo, Moses JR Alabama 30:23.70
10 Fout, Michael JR Florida State 30:26.68
Women 6k Run
1 Krueger, Kristie JR Georgia 19:52.93
2 Cheruiyot, Pasca SR Florida State 19:55.21
3 McShine, Pilar SR Florida State 19:56.39
4 Parry, Jessica SO Florida State 19:56.68
5 Knight, Hollie SR Auburn 19:57.68
6 LaCaze, Genevieve JR Florida 20:06.10
7 Browning, Charlotte SR Florida 20:11.17
8 Howe, Mackenzie SR Kennesaw State 20:16.13
9 Dunn, Jennifer JR Florida State 20:18.51
10 Brooks, Hannah SR Florida State 20:24.47
South Central Regional Waco, Texas
Men 10k
1 Festus Kigen TCU 30:11.1
2 Solomon Haile Arkansas 30:13.2
3 Dorian Ulrey Arkansas 30:13.3
4 Eric Fernandez Arkansas 30:15.5
5 Ryan Dohner Texas 30:21.1
6 David Rooney McNesse 30:23.5
7 Patrick Kimeli TX A&M Corpus
8 Lane Boyer Arkansas 30:29.4
9 Matt Johnsen Lamar 30:30.6
10 Patrick McGregor FR Texas 30:34.5
46 Chris Jones Lamar 31:40.7
64 Jordan Neil McNesse 32:15.6
Women 6k
1 Nicole Mericle Rice 20:16.3
2 Mia Behm Texas 20:20.5
3 Miranda Walker Arkansas 20:27.9
63 Fionnuala Ross McNesse 22:16.1
84 Alvy Carragher McNesse 22:50.3
105 Aisling Casey McNesse 23:27.9
NCAA Div 1 Northeast Regional XC Madison, CT
MEN 10K
1 Leonard Korir 29:36.9 IONA Iona
2 Lee Carey 29:48.5 PROV Providence
3 Daniel Chenoweth 29:51.2 HARV Harvard
4 Matthew Bayley 29:54.3 IONA Iona
5 Dominic Channon 29:55.6 PROV Providence
82 Craig Murphy 31:54.0 IONA
201 Kevin Cooper 34:17.6 Brown
WOMEN 6K
1 Lucy Van Dalen 19:38.4 Stony Brook
2 Holly Van Dalen 19:42.0 Stony Brook
3 Shelby Greany 19:56.4 Providence
4 Corey Conner 19:57.3 Maine
5 Caroline McDonough 20:12.6 Columbia
21 Charlotte Ffrench O’Carroll 20:46.4 Providence
92 Tara Jameson 22:03.2 Iona
Southeast Regional Louisville, Ky.
Women 6k
1 Laura Hoer NC State 19:54.5
2 Kendra Schaaf North Carolina 20:02.4
3 Anna Nosenko Wake Forest 20:13.7
45 Michelle Finn West Kentucky 21:36.3