Senior All-American Maria Curit breezed into Saturday's 800-meter run final with a second place finish in her preliminary heat (PHOTO BY Kevin Sielaff) |
Curit qualifies for 800-meter run final tomorrow at 3:45 p.m.
ALLENDALE, Mich. (May 22, 2015) – Sophomore Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) finished 11th in the 3000-meter steeplechase final and senior All-American Maria Curit (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford) qualified for tomorrow's 800-meter run final on day two of the 2015 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by Grand Valley State University and the West Michigan Sports Commission, at Grand Valley State Track & Field Stadium this evening.
Borofski, competing in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Championships for the first time, turned in an 11th place finish in tonight's final with a time of 10:42.30. She had qualified for the final on her time of 10:38.76 in Thursday's preliminary round, which was the 11th fastest time out of 20 combined competitors for the event. Hillsdale College junior Emily Oren dominated the final, winning the event in 9:54.43 – just 0.41 shy of the championship record set last year. Her sister, sophomore Molly Oren took third in 10:16.93 for Hillsdale, while Western Washington University senior Katelyn Steen finished second in 10:13.93 – roughly 19-seconds off the winning pace of Emily Oren.
Borofski was third as the competitors reached the first hurdle at the end of the front stretch and had settled back to sixth the first trip over the water barrier after 400-meters. Emily Oren started to pull away from the pack almost immediately with her meet record pace and Borofski was in eighth with six laps to go. Oren continued to stretch her lead, with Steen and Molly Oren struggling to keep pace and the pack fell apart by the third lap. Borofski was 11th with five laps to go and remained there, despite attempts to rally for an All-America position in the top eight as she finished less than two seconds behind Western State University freshman Alicja Konieczek (10:40.84) in tenth and just under 14-seconds behind Central Washington University junior Dani Eggleston (10:28.79) in eighth.
Sophomore Nicole Borofski finished 11th in the 3000-meter steeplechase final tonight. (PHOTO BY Kevin Sielaff) |
Curit easily qualified for tomorrow night's 800-meter run final with her second place finish in the second of three preliminary heats tonight. Her time of 2:08.22 was fifth-fastest out of 21 competitors over the three heats from which the top two in each section, plus the next three fastest runners qualified for tomorrow afternoon's final. Cedarville University freshman Carsyn Koch posted the fastest qualifying time of 2:06.85 to win the first heat.
Curit, who entered the NCAA Championships as the No. 2 overall seed, ran up front the entire race, sitting in second as the runners went down the front stretch for the first time. She dropped back to third for the final run across the backstretch, but made her move around the final turns and hung on to the right shoulder of Lincoln (Mo.) University junior Jhevere Hall (2:08.05) as the pair broke away from the pack down the final stretch and coasted one-two across the finish line and into tomorrow's final.
Curit, who placed 18th in the long jump final on Thursday with a distance of 18-feet, 1.50-inches, will be seeking the fourth All-America award of her career when she runs in the 800-meter final at 3:45 p.m. She finished seventh in last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 800 and then eighth in the Indoor Championships in March. Curit also collected All-America honors as part of Stonehill's 4x400-meter relay at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Live results and live video links for tomorrow's NCAA Championships will be available at www.ncaa.com and www.stonehillskyhawks.com.
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