University of Richmond Athletics
Five Spiders Head To NCAA Track & Field National Championships
06/07/2011 | Women's Track & Field
June 7, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa - A remarkable season that started with both the Richmond men's and women's cross country teams winning the Atlantic 10 titles and also included the Spiders' first-ever meet at new Robins Stadium, culminates this week with five Spiders competing in the NCAA Track & Field National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa.
• Today's Richmond Times-Dispatch: UR's Benford, Llano took extra lap on way to NCAA track championships
For Richmond's track & field program, the five representatives at this year's NCAA National Championship are the most since seven men's runners competed at the 1982 championship. It also marks the first time in school history that the Spiders have had multiple entries on both the men's and women's side.
The National Championship begins June 8 and the four-day event is hosted by Drake University at Drake Stadium.
Representing the Spiders this season are seniors Amy Van Alstine (5,000m), Nicol Traynor (3,000m steeplechase), Heather Roush (javelin), Andrew Benford (3,000m steeplechase) and Matt Llano (10,000m).
Richmond's schedule for the weekend:
• 3,000m steeple (men's): Semis Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.; Finals Friday at 7:30 p.m.
• 3,000m steeple (women's): Semis Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Finals Saturday 11th at 12:54 p.m.
• 10,000m (men's): Finals Thursday at 8:50 p.m.
• 5,000m (women's): Finals Friday at 8:10 p.m.
• Javelin (women's): Trials/Finals Thursday at 3:05 p.m.
Llano is making a return trip to the NCAA Championship after a ninth-place All-America finish in last year's 10,000m, while Traynor competed in the 2009 National Championship in the 5,000m. This season marks the first career nationals appearance for Van Alstine, Benford and Roush.
Stay tuned to RichmondSpiders.com throughout the weekend for nightly updates, and follow head men's coach Steve Taylor during the meet via his Blog and Twitter account.
