CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Eagles had a strong weekend, running six top-10 times and eight personal bests, at the Virginia Challenge (Apr. 17-18). The weekend was highlighted by seniors Carver Morgan and Kaden Kluth, who both ran personal bests and moved up in the Patriot League and NCAA East rankings.

Morgan placed 11th in the invite 800 in a PR of 1:47.06, which ranks first in the Patriot League and 22nd in the NCAA East Region. Kluth placed fourth in the invite 1500 with his first-ever sub-3:40 mark, running 3:39.43 to improve his second-place Patriot League ranking and rank 17th in the NCAA East Region.

• Freshman Gregory Celariste ran a wind-legal personal best of 10.92 seconds in the 100 meters on Friday (Apr. 17). The time ranks fourth all-time for AU.
• Freshman Shealyn Brochu added her name to another AU top-10 list with a five-second PR of 4:31.55 in the 1500, putting her at fifth AU all-time. Senior Kate Riley won her heat in a season best of 4:40.77, just off her PR.
• Freshman Emmett Engelhardt led the men in the open 1500 with a debut of 3:52.41. On Saturday (Apr. 18), he came back to PR in the 800 meters, running 1:52.65.
• Sophomore Ty Parker won his heat of the open 1500 meters with a PR of 3:55.02.
• Senior Annie Ripol debuted in the 10k on Friday evening with a strong negative-split race, running 37:00.78 to place third in the event. The performance puts her at fifth AU all-time and ranks seventh in the Patriot League.
• Sophomore Jaden Frederick debuted in the 10k in 31:08.00, which ranks ninth in the Patriot League.
• Freshman Emma Colavito led the women's 5k on Saturday morning, running a personal best of 17:47.92. Sophomore Zoe Rector was close behind, running a nine-second PR of 17:48.18.
• Freshman Lilia Jones ran a PR of 25.62 seconds (+2.2) in the 200, which would move her up to fifth AU all-time if it was wind-legal.
• The men's 4x100 relay of Jason Omari-Anim, Alex Zenit, Emilio Hooper, and Gregory Celariste ran 42.25 seconds, which ranks second AU all-time.

View the full results here.

Coaches' Corner
"This meet is an important one on our schedule every year," said head coach Sean Graham. "It falls at a time in the season when training and racing begin to come together for bigger performances, and we found very good results because of that once again this year. We came away with some big PRs, heat wins, more top-five times and solidified NCAA First Round qualifiers.

In the sprints Greg had a nice wind-legal PR for fourth all-time in the 100, and Lilia a good PR with a slight favorable wind, just .2 over the limit. The men then came back for a second AU all-time 42.2 in the 4x100 as we prepare for the relays to compete well at Patriot Leagues.

Moving up in races, the middle distance athletes had a great weekend. Kate Riley and Ty Parker had very similar races to win their respective men's and women's 1500 heats. Both managed a tactical first half then made decisive moves to run away from their fields to win. Freshmen Shealyn and Emmett similarly had very strong races in challenging fields of their own to once again lower their PRs. Emmett then came back in the 800 on day two for a bit of an 800 PR, closing off a very good weekend for him. 

"Up in races again, our distance athletes had very good weekends, too. In the women's 5k, Emma and Zoe had great performances, both clicking off outdoor PRs, and a nine-second improvement of her best time for Zoe. Then in the 10k Annie and Jaden had their debuts in the event and both competed impressively! Jaden raced the second half of the race on his own after running away from his group. Annie clicked off great steady splits for the first half of the race then closed off the race with a nice kick.

Finally, Kaden and Carver had very good races of their own in the invitational fields of the 1500 and 800. Both PRed and were just off AU school records, solidifying their no. 2 spots on the record board. While neither had perfectly executed races, they both made intelligent moves later in their events to close well and come away with very strong times. They are both now in comfortable position for NCAA First Round qualification as well!

"We'll now look to some exciting relays at the historic Penn Relays in Philly next weekend.  It'll be the biggest group we've brought in recent history with the women racing the college 4x100 and 4x800 and the men in the Championship of America DMR and 4x800."

Next Up
The Eagles will send four relays to the Penn Relays hosted by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (Apr. 23-25).

Follow the Eagles
Instagram | Twitter | AUEagles

VIRGINIA CHALLENGE RESULTS

100m, Women	53. Lilia Jones, 12.32
100m, Men	37. Gregory Celariste, 10.92 (PR)* | 52. Jason Omari-Anim, 11.13
3000m Steeplechase, Men	10. Cooper Michaud, 9:25.60
1500m, Women	18. Shealyn Brochu, 4:31.55 (PR)* | 53. Kate Riley, 4:40.77 | 69. Kara Langbaum, 4:45.69 | 81. Georgina Chalow, 4:55.93
1500m, Men	23. Emmett Engelhardt, 3:52.41 | 33. Ty Parker, 3:55.02 (PR) | 47. Charlie Lovet, 3:58.96 | 67. Zack Zerbe, 4:15.93
800m Invitational, Men	11. Carver Morgan, 1:47.06 (PR)*
1500m Invitational, Men	4. Kaden Kluth, 3:39.43 (PR)*
10,000m, Women	3. Annie Ripol, 37:00.78*
10,000m, Men	6. Jaden Frederick, 31:08.00
5000m, Women	24. Emma Colavito, 17:47.92 (PR) | 25. Zoe Rector, 17:48.18 (PR) | 38. Estella Miller, 19:09.64 | 39. Lydia Drago, 19:17.02
5000m, Men	26. Noah Smith, 14:56.81
200m, Women	34. Lilia Jones, 25.62 (+2.2)
200m, Men	30. Jason Omari-Anim, 22.48 | 40. Alex Zenit, 23.03 | 41. Emilio Hooper, 23.24
800m, Women	49. Charlotte Orr, 2:18.68 | 61. Georgina Chalow, 2:23.39
800m, Men	17. Daden Grogan, 1:51.18 | 27. Emmett Engelhardt, 1:52.65 (PR) | 46. Barak Goldstein, 1:54.24 | 69. Papakojo Danquah, 1:57.30
4x100, Women	16. Clark, DiPaolo, Gin, Jones, 48.71
4x100, Men	11. Omari-Anim, Zenit, Hooper, Celariste, 42.25*
400m, Women	36. Lara Gin, 56.99 | 56. Zoe Clark, 58.48

*Top 10 Record Book Mark