Carlyle to Race in 5,000 Meters at Nationals on Friday
June 9, 2011
Corvallis, Ore. – Junior Laura Carlyle (Kelowna, British Columbia) will represent Oregon State in the 5,000 meters on Friday, June 10 at 6:10 p.m. PT at the 2011 NCAA Track and Field Championships, hosted by Drake University.
Carlyle will join 23 other competitors as the 11th-seeded runner on Jim Duncan Track with the top eight finishers to be named All-America First Team.
“I am really excited for Laura, as she has worked really hard in all areas of her training, academics and lifestyle to reach this level,” head coach Kelly Sullivan said. “It is more about her right now, even though it is true that this is also a very symbolic moment being the first female NCAA qualifier since the program was eliminated in 1988. I am also really happy for her teammates and staff as we all share in this moment. Now it is about going back there and showing the nation who this new face on the scene is.”
Carlyle, who knocked off 14 seconds off her preliminary round qualifying time, finished fourth in her heat, seventh overall on May 28 in Eugene, Ore., to become the first NCAA Championships qualifier since the program was reinstated in 2005.
She stuck with eight other runners in the lead pack in the 23-runner field, falling behind a little in the final pair of laps before kicking in the final 200 meters to come back from seventh to fourth, just beating out Jennifer Bergman of Arizona by thousandths of a second to finish in 16:05.04.
The time also reset her school record posted two months ago (16:19.00) at the Stanford Invitational, marking the only other time she competed in the 5,000 meters.
The runner to catch will be Jordan Hasay of Oregon, who has posted the fastest time all season (15:37.29), and finished fourth at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
Live results are available at ncaa.com, while additional information is available at GoDrakeBulldogs.com. And the entire event will be streamed live on both sites.
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