Kiernan Lofland Breaks 32-Year Old Freshman Record

Tribe Sends Two Runners, 4x800m Relay Into Finals

05/12/07 8:55PM

PRINCETON, NJ - William and Mary’s men’s track team had a very successful second day at the IC4A Championships, sending a pair of 800m runners and the 4x800m relay into tomorrow’s final heats, as well as breaking a 32-year old record in the pole vault.

Saturday Track Results
Saturday Field Results

Freshman Kiernan Lofland (Crozier, Va.) cracked the 16-foot barrier for the first time in the pole vault competition, clearing the bar at 16’ 0.75” to break Dave Lipinski’s outdoor freshman record of 16’, set back in 1975, 12 years before Lofland was born. Lofland’s mark also stands as the overall freshman record at William and Mary, exceeding Adolph Brown’s 16’ 0.5” mark set indoors in 1988, and ranks him fourth all-time at the College.

In the 800m run, sophomore David Groff (Centreville, Va.) qualified for Sunday’s finals with a life-time best and NCAA-qualifying mark of 1:49.43. His performance, which ranks him sixth all-time at W&M, makes him the fastest Green and Gold athlete since three-time All-American Anders Christiansen ’99. Also qualifying for Sunday’s finals, and the NCAA Regional, junior Matt Warco (McMurray, Pa.) earned the final qualifying spot with a time of 1:49.85, the ninth-fastest time in school history. The man he edged out by a single hundredth of a second was teammate Ryan Jones (Harrisburg, Pa.), who ran 1:49.86 to qualify for the NCAA Regional and take the number-10 spot all-time at the College.

William and Mary’s 4x800m relay, fresh off of winning the College Division race at the Penn Relays, also qualified for tomorrow’s finals, timing 7:36.43. The qualifying team was led-off by senior Sean Anastasia-Murphy (Gloucester, Mass.), who was followed by juniors Anthony Arena (Manassas, Va.) and Ian Fitzgerald (Glenshaw, Pa.), and anchored by Jones.

The IC4A Championships conclude tomorrow.