Pitt Track and Field Set for NCAA East Prelims

May 25, 2016

Women's Start Lists | Men's Start Lists | Live Results

PITTSBURGH - Eleven members of the Pitt men's and women's track and field teams are set to compete in the 2016 NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on the campus of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., in hopes of qualifying for the finals in Eugene, Ore.

Competition will begin Thursday, May 26 starting with the field events at noon, while the running events will get underway at 4:30 p.m. The top 48 athletes in each event will strive to land among the top 12, who will then punch tickets to Tracktown USA.

Leading the Panthers this weekend is junior Desmond Palmer, who recently defended his 400 meter hurdle ACC title and ranks second in the east and fourth in the nation. This time last year, Palmer finished fourth in his heat and grabbed one of the "next fastest" times after the nine automatic qualifiers of the event, punching his ticket to Oregon. Palmer looks to continue his national success Thursday at 5 p.m. He will also run in the 100 meter hurdles.

Palmer will anchor seniors Donnell Taylor, Chris Tate and junior Brylan Slay in the 4x400 meter relay Saturday at 9:45 p.m. in the final event of the weekend. The relay team ran a career-best 3:06.23 en route to a silver medal at the 2016 ACC Championships and rank 17^th in the east.

Taylor and Tate will also run in the 400 meter dash.

In the men's field events, freshman Grant Jones will make his debut on the big stage in the javelin throw. In his first appearance at the ACC Outdoor Championships, Jones earned Second Team All-ACC recently after a fifth place finish (63.27m). Jones boasts a 63.16m personal-best mark that he threw earlier this season at Penn Relays. He will be the first Panther to compete on Friday, as men's javelin gets underway at noon.

On the women's side, the distance team is well represented in sophomore Kelly Hayes, freshman Gillian Schriever and senior Hillary Boxheimer.

Hayes will run the 3,000 meter steeplechase, an event that she broke the school record in earlier this season with a time of 10:22.08. The Pearl River, N.Y., native recently finished fourth in the steeplechase at the ACC Championships (10:23.42). Hayes will run on Friday at 8:50 p.m.

Both Schriever and Boxheimer will compete in the 5,000 meter run, an event that saw both women score points for the Panthers at the 2016 ACC Outdoor Championships. At ACCs, Schriever ran a 16:43.38, while her personal-best is a 16:24.34 that was reached earlier this season at the Virginia Challenge. Schriever and Boxheimer will run on Saturday at 8:05 p.m.

Junior Laila Ismail rounds out the women running events for the Panthers, as she will compete in the 400 meter hurdles on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Senior Racquel Williams and sophomore Andin Fosam will represent the Pitt women in the field events this weekend. Williams, the 2016 ACC shot put runner-up (15.92m), will make her national stage debut on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Fosam, also making her first NCAA appearance, will compete in the hammer throw on Thursday, at 4 p.m.

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