Nov. 13, 2010
HOOVER, Ala. – Leading all Tech runners for the fifth-straight meet, Georgia Tech junior Mary Kate DuBard finished 13th at the NCAA South Regionals on Saturday at Veterans Park in Hoover, Ala. helping her team to a 15th place showing at the meet. Her time of 20:32.24 was a career-best at the 6k distance and could potentially be good enough to qualify her for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
On the men’s side of things, only four runners came across the finish line for Tech in the 10k race, preventing the team from placing. (Five runners need to cross for the team to earn a finish). The team was lead by senior DJ McMillan who crossed the line in 35th place with a career best time of 31:33.80,
The top-two teams to finish at the meet qualify as a team for the national meet. On Sunday, 13 at-large teams will be chosen to also attend NCAA Championships. The four fastest runners not on an automatic qualifying or at-large team will also earn a spot in the meet.
Currently, DuBard’s 13th place finish places her as the fifth fastest competitor not on an automatic qualifying team behind the winner Kristie Krueger of Georgia, Hollie Knight of Auburn (fifth), Mackenzie Howe of Kennesaw State (eighth) and Jordan White of Vanderbilt (11th). Vanderbilt and Georgia finished in third and fourth place respectively at the meet, so if one of their performances were good enough to qualify the team for the national meet, DuBard would also be accepted to nationals.
“Mary Kate ran an outstanding race to give herself a shot at an at-large berth to next week’s NCAA Championships,” said head coach Alan Drosky. “We’ll have to wait until Sunday night to find out. The other women ran well with some quality times. We went in not ranked in the top 15 and came out 15th, so that was good.”
The next female runner to come across the line for Tech was freshman Megan Breitbach in 73rd place (22:06.19), followed by Betsy Kim (90th place, 22:24.35), Felicity Brower (93rd, 22:26.29), and Maureen McMeekin (111th place, 22:47.91) to round out the top-five. Sarah Anderson and Mary Kownack took 126th and 127th place respectively with times of 22:59.98 and 23:00.25 to finish out the Georgia Tech female runners. The team averaged a time of 22:03.40 in their 15th place finish.
On the men’s side, the first four runners to cross for the Jackets came across in the top-100 led by McMillan. In second place among the Jackets was Patrick Barron (44th place, 31:51.10), followed by Shawn Roberts (55th place, 32:14.56) and Niall Longobardi (97th place, 33:26.55).
“The men’s race was a disappointment for the team,” continued Drosky. “Individually DJ, Patrick, and Shawn ran solid races. And Niall ran decently to finish as our fourth. But with three runners not finishing today we did not receive a team score. Two pulled out with injury, and one I pulled off the course because I believe he was putting himself in danger of heat exhaustion.”
The top two teams to finish on the women’s side of things were Florida State and Florida. Overall, Krueger of Georgia took first place among the women’s runners with a time of 19:52.93, on of just five times under 20 minutes.
On the men’s side of things, Ciaran O’Lionaird of Florida State took the top spot with a time finish just over the 30-minute mark at 30:03.34. Overall, Alabama came in first place followed by the Seminoles to automatically qualify for the national meet.
