Middle Distance
“Every miler knows, in the way a sailor knows the middle of the ocean, that it is not the 1st lap but the 3rd that is farthest from the finish.”
Men’s 800m
The freshman Chris Sanders (La Salle) leads all Atlantic 10 half milers with his time of 1:50.66. Sanders split 1:48 on the La Salle DMR that ran 9:39.31 to place 7th in the College Championship of America heat at the Penn Relays just last week. With his bronze medal finish at 800m at the A10 Indoor Championship this past winter, Sanders is clearly not your typical freshman and will be looking to medal again this weekend. The current top three are rounded out by Craig Morgan (George Mason) with a time of 1:51.42 and Khalid Khamis (VCU) with a time of 1:51.95. 10 men have broken 1:53 this season.
Women’s 800m
Titi Fagade (Fordham) is the current top seed at this distance with a time of 2:07.12. She ran this time Indoors and is yet to run faster this season on the larger track. In fact, each woman in the current top three have yet to pass their incredibly fast Indoor marks: Elise Farris (Duquesne) is 2nd with a 2:08.38 and Heather MacLean (UMass Amherst) with a 2:09.42. Farris out-leaned Fagade at the most recent Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships to win by less than half a second. Look for a tight race between these two as Fagade tries strike back against Farris. The current fastest time run this Outdoor season is Tori Pisco’s (La Salle) mark of 2:11.86. This time seeds her 5th.
Men’s 1500m
Aaron Leskow (Saint Joseph’s) is leads all A10 1500m men with his time of 3:45.81. Leskow is coming off of an Indoor season where he won the Mile and placed 4th in the 3k at Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships and set his school record in the 3k by running 8:07.07 to place 11th at the IC4A Indoor Championships. The 2nd and 3rd spots in the A10 are both Mile conversions from Indoors: Jim Spisak (Duquesne) and Nick Ross (La Salle). However, Spisak has not entered in 1500m and will be perusing medals in longer events. The only returning top 3 finisher from last years Outdoor Champs is Tom O’Kane (Saint Joseph’s). He earned a bronze medal last year and is currently seeded 11th 3:50.93. 7 of the top 11 runners are from Philadelphia, PA (4 from La Salle and 3 from Saint Joseph’s).
Women’s 1500m
The Atlantic 10 1500m women are led by a pair of Dukes in Hailey Pisarcik’s 4:26.64 and Amber Valmont’s 4:27.19. Valmont’s time is a conversion from her Indoor mile. She has run a season-best time of 4:31.14. Margo Richardson (Saint Louis) rounds out the top 3 with her time of 4:28.52. This event will come down to each girl’s ability to handle previous races and continue racing. The top three alone will have all run at least two races each by the finals (each girl running the 1500m prelim, Pisarcik an 800m prelim and possibly the final, Valmont running the 3k Steeplechase and Richardson running the 5k.) Any less-exhausted runners in this final may be looking to push the pace early in an attempt to break the worn-down race favorites.
Lane 2 