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May 4, 2008

2008 BIG EAST Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Final results

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Marquette University captured a title in the women's 4x800-meter relay and Tyler O'Brien achieved a U.S. Junior National qualifying mark in the men's 200-meter dash to highlight the Golden Eagles' performances Sunday in the final day of the 2008 BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Jumbo Elliott track.

"The bottom line is myself and the coaches are very excited about all the strong performances this weekend," said head coach Bert Rogers. "We had a couple of personal bests and school records. We really came out and competed hard."

Cassie Peller, Kaitlin Millen, Kaitlyn Chambers and Sarah Verdoliva made up the relay squad that claimed Marquette's lone outdoor league championship this weekend. Their time of 8:49.96 broke the foursome's own school record by nearly 10 seconds.

"Cassie had a tough day in the 1,500 [meters] and came back and ran an excellent leadoff leg," Rogers said. "We were neck-and-neck with DePaul at the hand off and then Kaitlin put the hammer down. Chambers extended the lead and Sarah Verdoliva just brought it all home."

O'Brien's time of 21.41 in Sunday's finals was a personal record, third-best all-time at the school and topped his freshman record of 21.49 set in yesterday's prelims. He finished fourth overall in the event and beat Aulton Kohn of Syracuse, who had won the men's 100 meters on Saturday.

Jessica Ehlen finished sixth in the hammer throw with a toss of 51.52m (169-00). She was fifth in the discus with a mark of 45.83m (150-04).

"She's just a gamer," Rogers said of Ehlen. "She finished higher than she was ranked in both the discus and hammer throw. She did such a tremendous job. She's such a competitor, and we're all just very proud of her."

Rogers mentioned he and his coaching staff were also proud of the efforts of fellow throw Jeff Kluge. Kluge placed eighth in the men's hammer throw at 48.91m (160-05).

Lana Rabas finished eighth in the women's high jump with a jump of 1.70m (5-07.00). A major accomplishment since she came into the event ranked No. 21 in the conference. It was a personal record and the fourth-highest jump all-time at MU.

The men's 4x100 meter relay team of Antonio Jones, O'Brien, Nick VanDeraa and Ray Bratchett placed eighth with their time of 42.14, while Jed Burey, Peter Bolgert, Mark Kopecki and Eric Meissner raced to a sixth-place finish in the men's 4x800-meter relay with a time of 7:33.98.

Marquette placed 13th overall in the women's team rankings and 14th on the men's side. Notre Dame won the men's team championship. Louisville earned the women's title.

"As far as the team finishes, we were hoping to finish higher," said Rogers. But that's a testament to how difficult the conference is and how much work we need to do to get better.

"We're looking forward to the regional qualifiers and just continuing to to build for the future," he added. "I think that this is a program on the rise, and we're going to continue to get better and stronger."