March 26, 2009
Looking for another gorgeous sunny day on Friday, March 27 in the Bay Area, Santa Clara's track and field teams hope to add to its five school records its already set this season when it runs at the Stanford Invitational and the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.
Stephanie Wilson will run the 5000m at the Stanford Invitational on Friday evening.
"My goal is qualify for the NCAA regionals," said Wilson, who will have to run a 10-second PR at 16:52.00 to qualify for the NCAA Regional Championships in Eugene, Ore. May 30-31.
Sophomore Kazimir Brown will join her in the 100m at the Stanford Invitational.
"Stephanie is fit and has an outstanding positive attitude. She is really excited. She and I both feel she is ready to qualify for the regionals. We think she has a real chance at being the first female to qualify for the NCAA Regional Championship in our fifth year officially of women's track," said Bronco head coach Tom Service. "This is by no means her last chance at doing it, but it would be nice to get it out of the way. We don't want to put undo pressure on her, but she feels she is ready."
"Because the Stanford Invitational qualifying standards are so competitive this year, there are a number of outstanding runners competing in the distance events at the Distance Carnival at San Francisco State," said Service.
At the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, Robbie Reid will run the fast heat of the 5000m, running his second 5K ever.
"It will be a good experience for him," said Bronco assistant coach Felipe Montoro.
In addition, John Laughlin will be working to run under four minutes in the 1500m as his current PR is 4:00.22. Andy Backus will run his first 10,000m of the season and Montoro believes running a PR in his first 5,000m will aid him in this race.
On the women's side, Noelle Lopez and Whitney Porter will team up to run their first career 10,000m. They look to break 37 minutes and Service sees that as a great goal for each of them.
Freshman Nicole Giove is coming off an outstanding opener at few weeks ago at San Francisco State and will look to get close to lowering her PR and run faster than 18 minutes.
The women will look to break the school record for the second straight week in the 4x400m relay when they run in one of the last events of the day. Three of the school record holders, Brown, Jenny Light, Jacqueline Lynch, will join Jennifer Hinds who will open her season running a leg of the 4x4.