College Track and Field
Rider's Mateescu Competes in NCAA East Regional
LAWRENCEVILLE—Senior Nicolette Mateescu (Kendall Park/South Brunswick) of the Rider University women's track and field team has qualified for the 10,000 meter at the NCAA East Regional that will take place in Florida Thursday night.
Mateescu posted a qualifying time of 34:45.34 at the Raleigh Relays on March 25 and she will compete tonight, May 26 at 9pm in Jacksonville, Florida.
This is the 12th year in a row that Rider has had an NCAA Regional qualifier.
"This is a well-deserved opportunity for Niky," said head coach Bob Hamer. "She has worked meticulously and diligently for several years to get to this point. The 10k is a difficult event in many ways. You only really get one opportunity to run a qualifying time. This is due to the few times that there will be a quality field and conditions to produce a qualifying mark and the toll that it takes on your body. She fortunately put together a big effort in March at Raleigh and now she was able to focus on training and preparing for the NCAA East Preliminary round. Other events you can compete in them just about every week and you have multiple opportunities each week."
One of 48 runners to qualify in the East (Jacksonville, Florida) and West (Lawrence, Kansas) Regionals, the top 12 in each region advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
"Niky has been great the last several years and she has risen to every challenge in a big meet situation," Hamer added. "We are looking forward to having her represent the program and she will go out there and give all of us a tremendous effort."
Last season Emily Ritter (Millsboro, Delaware/Sussex Tech) was Rider's first woman and third overall NCAA track and field championship qualifier. Ritter ran 9:54.72 in the finals of the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, finishing ninth at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Ritter finished as a Second Team All-American, missing the First Team (top eight) by 3/10th of a second.
The NCAA Championship race for the women's 10k will take place on Thursday, June 9 at 7:08pm.
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