FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
S-113-05-06
Monday, May 22, 2006

NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship Cuts Announced; Three Elizabethtown Athletes to Compete in Four Events

ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Three Elizabethtown College athletes will be competing in four events at the 2006 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, according to the championship field announced by the NCAA. Senior Erin Lichti (Shickley, NE/Shickley Public) will compete in the women’s 200m. Junior Tyson Evensen (West Sand Lake, NY/Averill Park) will compete in both the men’s 800m and the men’s 1500m, and sophomore Kevin Clark (Horsham, PA/Hatboro-Horsham) will compete in the men’s pole vault. The NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships will be held at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill. from Thursday, May 25 to Saturday, May 27.

Lichti will be competing at the NCAA Championships for the first time in her career. She qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships in the finals of the 200m at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships May 6 with a personal and program record time of 25.02 seconds. She ranks 19th in the nation in the event.

Said Etown head coach Chris Straub, “The coaching staff and women’s track & field team couldn’t be happier for Erin. She and her family attended the 2005 Outdoor Championships held at Wartburg College in Iowa.” He continued, “While sitting in the stands together at one point I told her, ‘ Erin, you can be at this meet next year. It’s simply a matter of working a little harder and smarter over the next year.’ She said, ‘I know I want it, and I’ll work hard for it.’

"We made some changes, including bringing in new sprint coach Aaron Lyle ’03, and this is a wonderful conclusion to a challenging and rewarding career for Erin. She’s running her best at the end of the year, so now the goal is to get her to advance to the finals and become an All-American. The top eight finishers in each event get All-America honors.”

Evensen enters the NCAA Championships ranked second in the 800m with his automatic qualifying time of 1:50.66. He is also ranked sixth going into the national championships in the 1500m with another automatic qualifying time of 3:50.14.

Clark finished fourth in the pole vault at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Championships and goes into his first-ever NCAA Outdoor Championships ranked in a tie for third place at 16’6’3/4.” He achieved his best mark this year at the Shippensburg University Paul Kaiser Classic April 29.

Other Elizabethtown provisional NCAA qualifiers that did not make the final cut to compete at the national championship meet include Etown’s women’s 4x100m relay team, the Blue Jays’ women’s 4x400m relay team, first-year student Stephon Finley (Douglassville, PA/Daniel Boone) in the men’s 100m dash, junior Patrick Donovan (South Pasadena, CA/St. Francis) in the men’s 800m and in the men’s 1500m, and sophomore Drew Graybeal (Sykesville, MD/Glenelg) in the men’s 800m.

The 4x100m relay team of first-year student Katelyn John (Camp Hill, PA/Cumberland Valley), first-year student Tina Bucci (North Wales, PA/North Penn), junior Lori Havrilak (West Grove, PA/St. Mark’s, DE) and Lichti posted its season-best NCAA Championship provisional qualifying time of 48.53 seconds at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships May 6. The group finished the season ranked 18th in the nation, and it was just two teams and 0.27 second shy of the cut-off with Calvin College at 48.26 being the last team to make the field.

The 4x400m relay team of Bucci, John, sophomore Nicole Murphy (Hatboro, PA/Hatboro-Horsham) and Lichti provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a 3:57.64 performance at the Penn Relays Carnival April 27. They ran a school record, meet record and defended their MAC/Centennial Section 4x400m title at the Penn Relays for the third year in a row. Their time fell just 4.42 seconds short of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s best time, which was the last of the 15 teams that made the cut with a time of 3:53.22.

Said Straub, “Both the 4x100m and the 4x400m teams consist of first-year students Tina Bucci and Katelyn John, so their potential for future successes looks promising.”

In the men’s 100m dash, Finley’s school record of 10.81 seconds ended up being the 45th-fastest time in NCAA Division III this year, and 10.67 seconds was the last time to make it into the national championships. A total of 19 sprinters made the cut in the men’s 100m dash.

Donovan finished the 2006 outdoor season with a best time of 1:52.98 in the men’s 800m and a best time of 3:55.16 in the men’s 1500m. In the 800m, the last time to make it into the meet was 1:52.33 as 23 runners made the cut this year, although only 18 of those 23 athletes declared entry. He is ranked 29th in the nation in the 800m. In the 1500m, 3:53.47 was the last time accepted into the meet this year, and Donovan finished the season ranked 29th as well in that event. He advanced to the finals and finished seventh in the nation in the 800m at the 2005 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships to earn All-America honors for the first time in his career.

Graybeal finished the season ranked 34th in the men’s 800m with an outdoor season-best time of 1:53.10, just 0.77 second shy of the cut-off.

Etown’s entries will compete at the following times during the 2006 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships. Competition for the men’s pole vault will begin at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, May 25 and will wrap up the same day. The trial heats for the men’s 1500m will begin at 4:35 p.m. Thursday, and the trial heats for the women’s 200m will begin at 6:10 p.m. Thursday. The trials for the men’s 800m will begin at 5:20 p.m. Friday, May 26. The finals for the men’s 1500m will begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 27. The finals for the men’s 800m will take place at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, and the finals for the women’s 200m will take place at 3:35 p.m. Saturday.