EMAIL THIS PAGE

Indoor Track Teams Compete at George Mason Collegiate Invitational
Men, Women set 11 new indoor top-10 times

Feb. 7 , 2004 | Results

FAIRFAX, Va. — Twenty-one athletes represented American University's men's and women's indoor track teams Saturday at the George Mason University Collegiate Invitational, coming away with 11 new AU top-10 indoor times.

For the women, Ashley Dellinger set a school indoor record in the 400m dash with a time of 1:03.26. Her time bested the previous record, set by Deborah Cohen in 2001, by more than half a second. Dellinger finished 10th in the race. In the same race, Jessica Tenuta (Fayetteville, N.C./Terry Sanford) set a personal best with a time of 1:09.41, which is the eighth-fastest indoor 400m time in school history.

In the 1000m, Zaia Wharton (Elkins, W. Va./Elkins) raced to a first-place finish, in a time of 2:56.44, improving her own personal best time by nearly four seconds and running the third-fastest time in AU history. Freshman Kelley Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va./Kellam) also competed in the 1000m, checking in with the fourth-fastest time in school history at 3:02.50.

Whitney McNees (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley Central) set a personal best in the mile run, while improving her fourth-best time in school history with a time of 5:14.82. Sophomore Kaitlyn Lavender (Neptune, N.J./St. Rose) also made her mark on the school record book, running the ninth-fastest indoor mile in AU history at 5:44.66. Lavender finished in 15th-place.

In addition, Jessica Daniel (Wyncote, Pa./Cheltenham) finished in sixth in the 3000m run in a time of 10:58.77, and Christina Wright (Hatboro, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) placed second in the shot put with a throw of 9.34 meters.

On the men's side, senior Matt Seymour (Rockville, Md./Magruder) led the way with a win in the mile run in a time of 4:12.82, a personal best time and the sixth-fastest time in school history. However, Seymour was not the only athlete to crack the school's top-10 indoor record times. Freshman Michael Prather (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) clocked the sixth-fastest time in the 400m dash with a time of 52.31. Freshmen Dustin Emrani (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck North) and Alex Caudana (Irvine, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) ran the fourth- and fifth-fastest times in the 800m, respectively, with times of 1:56.60 and 1:56.87.

In the 1000m run, Rob Hofmann (Wantagh, N.Y./W.C. Mepham) ran the eighth-fastest time in school history with a time of 2:33.71.

The teams return to action next weekend, Feb. 13-14, when they head to New York City to compete in the Armory Collegiate Meet.