Marcus O'Sullivan has shuffled Villanova's DMR line-up for tonight's "last chance" meet at Notre Dame in an effort to secure an NCAA automatic qualifying time. Most had anticipated a DMR squad of Brian Tetreault (1200), Sam Ellison (400), Chris FitzSimons (800), and Sam McEntee (1600). However, Sam Ellison's excellent anchor of the Big East-winning 4x800 relay (where he ran 1:49 and unleashed a ferocious kick to defeat the Notre Dame anchor) and his off-the-charts 500 meter dash at that same meet have evidently persuaded Marcus O'Sullivan to move Ellison out of the 400 leg (where only a slight time advantage can be gained over opposing teams) and into the 800 meter leg. Out, then, is Chris FitzSimons, gone from that leg of the DMR. The 400-meter vacancy left by Ellison has been filled on the "A" DMR squad for the first time by freshman Bryan Murphy, who ran that leg well at the Big East meet (where the Wildcats ran a "B" squad of Chris O'Sullivan, Bryan Murphy, Brian Tetreault, and Mathew Mildenhall). As configured, the DMR squad will now have this indoor season's two best performers -- Ellison and McEntee -- in control of the back end of the race, hopefully to good effect.
Villanova currently sits with the #10 time (9:38.02) in the NCAA this year (with the NCAA taking usually 10 or 11 teams total for nationals), but is a full 7 seconds off the NCAA automatic qualifying time (9:31.00). Only BYU, Indiana, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma have achieved the AQ, but the Alex Wilson meet at Notre Dame has traditionally produced excellent times (as highlighted by the section below). The meet is being streamed live by FloTrack HERE and the DMR races are scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Other "last chance" competitors from Villanova will be at the Armory in New York City at the Columbia Last Chance Meet.
From the FloTrack website:
The Distance Medley Relays at Alex Wilson (AW) have really shaken things up over the past few years with teams flying in from all over the country to hit fast marks. With the exception of 2008, at least 5 of the teams at the NCAA Championships come from the Alex Wilson Invitational. Below there are some cliff notes on each year along with auto standards and slowest team from the meet to get in.
2007: 7 of 11 teams from AW (Auto: 9:34.00, slowest in from AW 9:35.71)
- 3 teams ran auto, 7 teams ran 9:35 or better, 13 teams ran under 9:40
2008: 1 of 11 teams from AW (Auto: 9:34.00, slowest in from AW 9:35.33)
- 3 teams ran 9:37 or faster
2009: 15 of 18 teams from AW (Auto: 9:34.00, slowest in from AW 9:33.32)
- 15 teams ran auto, only 1 team of 18 finishers that did not run under 9:40
2010: 5 of 11 teams from AW (Auto: 9:30.00, slowest in from AW 9:34.26)
- 9 teams ran under 9:35, 12 teams under 9:40 - Heat 1 | Heat 2
2011: 6 of 12 teams from AW (Auto: 9:32.00, slowest in from AW 9:33.77)
- 3 teams ran auto, 11 teams ran 9:35 or faster - Heat 1 | Heat 2
You can see that this is the place to get your marks and we love it as it provides some qualificaton drama only days away from the big show. And you have know its serious when Washington and Oregon leave the Dempsey and head to South Bend! Typically there are around 11 teams in, right now #11 is Florida at 9:38.95 (see national list). There are currently four auto qualifiers (BYU, Indiana, Texas A&M, Oklahoma) and only two others have broken 9:35 (Stanford-9:31.24 and ASU 9:33.48). With the list of teams entered below, no team outside of the auto qualifiers is safe!
Event 4 Men Distance Medley
Friday 3/2/2012 - 8:00 pm ET
9:31.00 NCAA AUTO
Section 1
Lane Team Relay Seed Time
1 Minnesota A 9:50.51
1) Burkstrand, Travis 2) Holton, John
3) Abda, Harun 4) Hutton, Nick
2 Ohio State A 9:48.64
1) Fallon, Chris 2) Smith, Korbin
3) White, Dan 4) Leslie, Cory
3 Penn State A 9:35.24
1) Endress, Wade 2) Nadolsky, Aaron
3) Loxsom, Casimir 4) Creese, Robby
4 North Carolina A 10:04.18
1) Driggs, Jack 2) Parros, Clayton
3) Wanliss, O'Neal 4) Presson, Isaac
5 Princeton A 9:54.11
1) Van Ackeren, Trevor 2) Hopkins, Tom
3) Williams, Michael 4) Callahan, Peter
6 Virginia A 9:42.97
1) Gilland, Taylor 2) Anding, Kevin
3) Roller, Lance 4) Kostelac, Anthony
7 Kansas A 9:48.92
1) Wasinger, Don 2) Munsch, Josh
3) Fink, Dalen 4) Clemons, Kyle
8 Oregon A 9:36.88
1) Shrader, Brian 2) Berry, Mike
3) Guyota, Boru 4) Dunbar, Trevor
9 Air Force A 9:55.39
1) Zubey, Alex 2) Delgado, Anthony
3) Lindsay, Alex 4) Walmsley, Jim
Section 2
Lane Team Relay Seed Time
1 Notre Dame A 10:00.58
1) Shawel, Johnathan 2) Giesting, Christopher
3) Babb, Randall 4) Rae, Jeremy
2 Wisconsin A 9:44.99
1) Mudd, Austin 2) Thompson, Aaron
3) Mellon, Zach 4) Hatz, Alexander
3 Albany A 9:49.90
1) Burke, Christopher 2) Santana, Jonathan
3) Rowell, Peter 4) Lagno, Paul
4 New Mexico A 10:10.31
1) Evans, Sam 2) York, Richard
3) Aragon, Gabe 4) Millington, Ross
5 Texas A 9:46.03
1) Jessett, CJ 2) Dreyer, Dereck
3) Thompson, Kyle 4) McGregor, Patrick
6 Villanova A 9:38.02
1) Tetreault, Brian 2) Murphy, Bryan
3) Ellison, Samuel 4) McEntee, Sam
7 Arkansas A 9:39.41
1) Lieghio, Anthony 2) Southard, Travis
3) Momoh, Leoman 4) Rono, Patrick
8 Washington A 9:35.06
1) Soberanis, Ryan 2) McNeal, Maurice
3) Whitley, Bradley 4) Bywater, Joey
9 Georgetown A 9:42.65
1) Peavey, Bobby 2) Akers, Hansel
3) Ulm, Toby 4) Springer, Andrew
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