It’s back to the track this weekend for the Cavaliers, as the Virginia men’s and women’s track and field squads kick off their 2009 campaigns with the U.Va. Spring Swashbuckle, one of two home meets this season.
The men’s team is coming off a solid indoor season that culminated in five Cavaliers being among the 568 athletes at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships this past weekend in College Station, Texas. Virginia’s distance medley relay team of freshman Sintayehu Taye, sophomore Meikle Paschal, freshman Lance Roller and senior Andrew Jesien earned All-America honors, joining the 1981 and 2005 squads as the only Cavalier DMR relay teams to achieve the feat.
After a third consecutive top-15 finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships this fall, the men’s distance and middle distance crew will vie for a breakout season this spring. Meanwhile, senior Yemi Ayeni, a two-time all-ACC performer, will look to finish his throwing career on a high note. Ayeni’s second-place finish in the discus at the 2008 NCAA Championships was the highest finish at the event for a Virginia athlete in history.
The women’s distance and middle distance runners, meanwhile, fresh off a Southeast Region cross country title and an appearance at the NCAA Championships, will be guided by senior All-American Katie Read and NCAA regional qualifier senior Lauretta Dezubay. ACC and ECAC champion junior Stephanie Garcia, a Cavalier Daily tableau editor, also will help lead the Virginia distance runners. The Cavalier throwers are headed up by senior Billie-Jo Grant, who returns after earning her third All-American distinction in the discus last year. Senior Talia Wise, a conference standout in the 200 meters, junior Galyn Iloka and sophomore Rashawnda James will lead a Virginia sprinting unit returning nearly all of last year’s performers.
—compiled by Nick Eilerson
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