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Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
JOHNSON NCAA PROVISIONAL QUALIFIER AT 800 METERS
Freshman advances to New England Open Championships final Saturday afternoon
BOSTON – Freshman Karina Johnson (East Hartford) qualified provisionally for the NCAA Division III national indoor track and field championships Friday during the preliminaries of the 800 meters at the New England Indoor Open Championships at the Track and Tennis Center on the Boston University campus.
With a program-record time of 2:16.00 on the banked track, Johnson qualified for Saturday’s ten-person final, which is scheduled to go off at 2:05 p.m. Johnson broke the program record in that event for the third straight week. Her time is the 21st fastest thus far in Division III and lowers her previous program record of 2:19.81, which she set last Saturday in running to All-New England honors and a seventh-place finish at the New England Division III meet at Smith College.
Seeded 19th, Johnson is among four Division III qualifiers to advance to the finals, joning athletes from Rhode Island, Boston University, Northeastern, Connecticut and Providence College. Senior Kolleen McAuley of Rhode Island posted the fastest qualifying time (2:13.63), and junior Sara Wild of Williams College was the first Division III finisher (2;14.38).
This year’s national indoor meet will be held March 14-15 at Ohio Northern University.
A total of nine Eastern male and female athletes competed on the first day of the championships, but Johnson was the only competitor to advance to Saturday’s finals.
Freshman Amber Petrizzo (Plainville) broke the program record at 400 meters in a time of 59.70, besting the old mark of 1:00.75 set at year’s meet by current Eastern senior Saryn Evans (Willimantic). Junior Nidia Gonzalez Lopez (Cromwell), the program record at 3,000 meters, qualified for next weekend’s ECAC meet at 5,000 meters with a time of 18:48.23, exceeding the standard by one hundredth of a second.
In men’s competition, All-New England sophomore sprinter Chris Gemske (West Hartford) broke 50 seconds for the first time in the preliminaries of the 400 meters and qualified for the ECAC meet with a time of 49.90. Program record-holder Gregory Dinas (Stamford) was clocked in 8.12 in the 55 meter hurdles, which was just off his own program record of 7.99 which he set two weeks ago in winning the Little East Conference/New England Alliance title. Dinas had the 21st-fastest time, missing the finals by one spot. The distance medley relay was timed in 10:58.26, just shy of the program record of 10:57.54 which was set at last weekend’s New England Division III Championships at Tufts University. Running the relay were junior Nicholas Noheimer (Willimantic), senior Mykal Kuslis (Watertown), freshman Ken Landry (East Hampton), and senior Mike Curley (Branford).
Joining Johnson in competition Saturday afternoon are Dinas in the high jump and the men’s and women’s 4x400 meter relay. Dinas, who shared 12th place in the high jump at least year’s event, has already qualified provisionally for the national meet in the high jump with program-record leaps of 6-feet-7 twice this season.
