Sports Information Department – 112 Dods Hall
Phone (716) 673-3100 / Fax (716) 673-3136

CONTACT: Jerry Reilly,
Sports Information Director

DATE: Thurs., Feb. 1, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Track & Field Preview

Blue Devils off to Big Apple, RIT

FREDONIA, N.Y. -- It'll be a split weekend of sorts for the Fredonia State track and field teams.

Fourteen athletes and two coaches will board a flight at dawn Friday bound for New York City and the 7th Annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the facility formerly known as The Armory. The meet will be held Friday and Saturday.

The balance of the men's and women's teams will also compete Friday, starting at 11 a.m., in the RIT Invitational at Rochester Institute of Technology's Gordon Field House.

The trip to the New Balance meet was the brainchild of head coach Nolan Swanson and assistant coach Paul Csont, who was the interim men's head coach the previous two seasons. Swanson and first-year assistant coach Liz Aldrich will accompany eight women and six men to the Big Apple, while Csont will oversee the trip to Rochester.

The first event involving Blue Devil athletes in New York City -- the women's 5,000 meters -- starts at 11 a.m. Friday, with Samantha Ellwood (Hamburg/Hamburg) and Jessica Bennett (Rochester/West Irondequoit) entered. Andy Forma (Elma/St. Francis) is entered in the men's 5,000 at 11:25 a.m., while Tom Williams (Queensbury/Queensbury) is an alternate.

Next up is the women's distance medley and the quartet of Bennett, Ellwood, Trisha Ippolito (Angola/Lake Shore), and Rachel McNamara (Lakeview/Nardin Academy). Fredonia State also has a men's distance medley team entered, with its members to be announced. At approximately 4:30 p.m., McNamara will complete in the women's 800 meters. She's also listed as an alternate for the women's 3,000 meters.

Aimee Milks (Binghamton/Chenango Forks) will compete in the women's mile at 9:25 a.m. Saturday, while Ippolito will wait in the wings as an alternate. Forma and Matt Wysocki (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) are alternates for the men's mile, scheduled for a 10:05 a.m. Saturday start.

In the field events, sophomore Julia Hopson (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) is entered in the women's weight throw, which has a 9:30 a.m. Saturday start, while Michael Kelley (Geneseo/Geneseo) has a 9:45 a.m. Saturday date in the men's triple jump.

The other Blue Devils bound for the New Balance meet, and still awaiting their seeds and assigned times, are junior Nicole Smith (Amherst/Amherst) in the women's 400 meters; and sophomore Andrew Power (Bloomfield/Victor) in the men's 60-meter hurdles. Sophomore Matt Callegari (Orchard Park/Orchard Park) and senior Stephanie Milks (Binghamton/Chenango Forks) will accompany their teammates to New York City.

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For more information:

New Balance Collegiate Invitational website

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