Feb. 23, 2008

NEW YORK, N.Y. - After a tumultuous day of travels on Friday, the Marquette track and field team arrived in New York early in the morning on Saturday. After a few hours of sleep the team was ready to go hard at the competition.

"All things considered, despite the problems with traveling, I am extremely proud of how hard this team competed today," head coach Bert Rogers said. "We had a lot of PR's and we fought hard against adversity. I'm really proud and I am looking forward to tomorrow, and I expect that we will have even better performances."

In the women's 1,000m senior Kaitlyn Chambers qualified to the finals on Sunday, crossing the line in 2:54.16. Junior Sarah Verdoliva also qualified to the finals on Sunday after posting a time of 2:14.34 in the 800m.

After day one, several athletes hit personal bests and scored points for the Golden Eagles. The women's Distance Medley Relay team of senior Cassie Peller, sophomore Katlin Millin, senior Kaitlyn Chambers and sophomore Jayne Grebinski finished in 11:52.57 to score points.

Junior Carrie Schmid also put up points for MU, clearing a height of 11-9.75, soaring to fifth place.

Senior Nick Van Deraa got the morning started right, turning in a personal best height of 15-3 in the pole vault, placing eighth in competition and ranking second all-time at MU.

After four events in the men's heptathlon, senior Tom Sage and sophomore Mike Laabs sit in a good position to make a final push for points on Sunday. Both athletes posted personal best in the 60m dash and the long jump and have just the pole vault, 60m hurdles and 1,000m on the final day of competition.

Freshman Tyler O'Brien earned a spot in the 200m finals, after crossing the line in 22.15 in the preliminaries.

Junior Eric Meissner ran a superb race in the 800m notching a personal best time of 1:52.71 to rank ninth all-time for MU and qualify to Sunday's finals.

The men's distance medley relay team of freshman Peter Bolgert, junior Antonio Jones, freshman Johnny Wright and sophomore Mark Kopecki earned points for the Golden Eagles finishing in 10:07.35.

The men's weight throws also had a successful day turning in two personal best performances in junior Mike Heim and senior Mike Boedeker. Heim threw 54-5.25 to rank eighth all-time, while Boedeker threw 56-7.5, fifth all-time, placing seventh to earn points for the team.

The Golden Eagles will be back in action for event finals, beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.