The West Virginia track team was split into two teams this weekend – one group competing at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge at Penn State and the other traveling to New York City to take part in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational.
At Penn State, No. 23 West Virginia was led by junior Chelsea Carrier, who broke both a school and meet record as she posted an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the pentathlon.
Carrier won the event with 4,136 points to break the school record of 4,111, which was previously set by Pat Itanyi in 1997.
Carrier finished first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8:45, the high jump (1.71 meters), the long jump (5.92 meters), the shot put (10.99 meters) and the 800-meter run (2:20.09).
“What a great performance by Chelsea,” said WVU head coach Sean Cleary. “She is quickly distinguishing herself as one of the greatest athletes in WVU’s history; this record was held by a national champion and Olympian. The sky appears to be the limit with Chelsea.”
Junior Stephanie Caruso also had success at the Penn State event, setting a personal-best in the mile with a Big East qualifying time of 5:01. Caruso marks the fifth Mountaineer to qualify in the mile event, joining Keri Bland, Jessica O’Connell, Aubrey Moskal and Halie Portner.
The distance medley relay team which consists of O’Connell, Bland, April Rotillio, and Kaylyn Christopher had great performances at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York.
The team started the weekend off on a strong note, posting a score of 11.17, the eighth best in the country.
“I am very happy with our performances in New York City,” Cleary said.
“I was hoping for a little more from this event, we will be better in the future.”
Although the event was not up to Cleary’s standards, the group was successful in the other events.
O’Connell posted a career-best in the mile, posting a time of 4:43.73, to meet an NCAA provisional time.
“It was a huge run for Jessica,” Cleary said. “This performance has her in with the nation’s elite. I feel it’s quite reasonable to see Jessica run five or six seconds faster before year’s end.”
The Mountaineers also captured the top three places in the 3,000-meter race, with seniors Marie-Louise Asselin, Christopher and Clara Grandt, finishing first, second and third, respectively.
Asselin and Christopher each finished with NCAA provisional times of 9:25.79, and 9:30.95, respectively, while Grandt finished in 9:33.57. Christopher’s time was 23 seconds better than her previous personal-best score.
“It was fun to watch the girls go 1-2-3 in this event,” Cleary said. “Kaylyn has even more left in this event; Clara used this race as a tune up for the Big East in two weeks. Marie-Louise in her first race of the year looked good for her first time out.”
In the 800-meter, Bland led for one lap before getting tangled up with another competitor.
It was Bland’s first time she competed in the event in the season.
“This was very unfortunate for Keri,” Cleary said. “She was running very well and narrowly escaped injury. I am grateful that she wasn’t trampled.”
West Virginia captured nine NCAA marks over the weekend. Cleary said the team needs to continue to improve on this weekends success.
The team will compete in a Gold-Blue meet at the WVU Shell Building next weekend, before competing in the Big East Championships in New York on Feb. 20th.
brad.joyal@mail.wvu.edu
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