VMI's Felix Kitur will take part in the preliminary round of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, set to begin Thursday on the campus of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C. While the first round will be contested Thursday, the second round will take place Friday evening. Live results can be seen on flashresults.com, and VMIKeydets.com will be on hand with updates via the @VMISID Twitter feed. Both sites are linked above, as is a performance list for the meet.
Kitur will be the #5 seed for the 800-meters, and will be joined by several familiar faces. Lance Roller and Robby Andrews of Virginia, Brian Gagnon of UConn and Donte Holmes of Delaware State are all among the top-12 seeds for the event and are familiar foes for the standout from Eldoret, Kenya. Further down the performance list are some additional familiar names, including Carlos Phillips of Florida. Phillips, seeded just 44th at this meet, was the individual who beat Kitur at the 2008 East Regional Championships, when Kitur ran a VMI and Big South record 1:46.75 to finish second.
The three-time Big South champion has enjoyed a resurgence this year, spending the latter portions of the season ranked well inside the top-15 nationally. His 1:47.78 time at April's Liberty Twilight Qualifier was fifth in the country at that point, and he moved back into the top-10 with his 1:47.62 clocking in the qualifying rounds at the IC4A's, where he wound up finishing second.
The top 48 runners in the East region qualified to this event, which will feature six heats Thursday evening. The top three in each heat and next six fastest times move on to Friday, as the field narrows to 24. Three races will take place Friday, with the top three per heat plus the next three fastest times heading to Eugene, Ore. for the final two rounds, which begin June 9. In Eugene, those 12 will be joined by 12 runners from the West region, and will run three heats once again. The top two in each of those heats, plus the next two quickest runners, will get to run for a national championship in the finals. This process is shown via a table in the document, "Outdoor Qualification Procedures", which is linked above.
Below are capsules on the race's top-10 seeds.
1 Casimir Loxsom FR Penn St. 1:46.74
Big 10 Freshman of the Year and 800-meter champion...posted his #1 seed time at Stanford's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, winning in a field that included just two collegiate athletes among the top eight finishers...had the eighth-fastest 800-meter time in the country for a high schooler last year, making him a highly touted recruit...was a disappointing 15th at the NCAA indoor championships.
2 Richard Jones JR LSU 1:46.81
2010 SEC Champion, thanks to his #2 seed time...fifth at NCAA Outdoor Championships last year...fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships this season...posted a sub-1:47 time at the LSU Alumni Gold meet...Jones is a two-time All-American.
3 Aaron Evans SO Georgia 1:47.00
Second to Jones at SEC Championships in his first year in the conference (transferred from Memphis)...third at the 2010 Florida Relays...won the 800 title in the university/open division at the Mount Sac Relays...was seventh at the indoor SEC Championships.
4 Fred Samoei JR Alabama 1:47.15
Junior college transfer who was a four-time All-American at the JC level...All-South Region in cross country this past season, helping Alabama to its best NCAA finish ever (3rd)...was third at the SEC championships behind Jones and Evans, in one of the best 800-meter races in the country thus far in 2010...won the 800-meters at the Drake Relays...was second to Sharif Webb of Kentucky at the 2010 Florida Relays.
5 Kitur JR VMI 1:47.62
6 Sharif Webb JR Kentucky 1:47.64
Was a teammate of Samoei's at South Plains Junior College...first season at Kentucky was marked by a fourth-place finish at the SEC Championships...also won the 2010 Florida Relays, beating two of the individuals above him on this performance list, and briefly holding the region's top time...just missed the finals of this event at the NCAA Indoor meet, finishing ninth...helped Kentucky to a second-place finish in the college division of the DMR at this year's Penn Relays.
7 Robby Andrews FR Virginia 1:47.73
This season's NCAA Indoor Champion...edged Kitur by .05 at April's Liberty Twilight Meet, and it's that time that makes him the region's #7 seed...has not contested an 800 since then...anchored UVA to their Penn Relays title in the 4X800-meter relay, a race where he outleaned Andrew Wheating of Oregon for the second time in six weeks...that also occurred at the indoor championships, where Andrews beat the 2008 Olympian by just .01...was second at the ACC Championships, losing out to teammate Lance Roller in the first defeat of Andrews' young career...was the indoor ACC Champion and also won the NYRR Saturday Night at the Armory III event at this distance.
8 Ryan Foster JR Penn St. 1:47.78
Was eighth at the outdoor championships last year, and third indoors this season...anchored Penn State's 4X800-meter relay to a third-place finish at the Penn Relays...has not contested an 800 since the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford, where he ran his seasonal-best time...was the Big 10 Champion for this event indoors.
9 Lance Roller SO Virginia 1:47.85
Was part of the Kitur/Andrews race at the Liberty Twilight Meet, finishing third...ACC outdoor champion, where he beat teammate Andrews for the title...ran his seed time at the same track the preliminary round takes place on, as he logged the 1:47.85 clocking at the North Carolina A&T Invitational, held May 16...was the top collegiate 800-meter finisher at the Colonial Relays...was second to Andrews at the NYRR Saturday Night at the Armory III event...was second (to Andrews) at the ACC Indoor Championships.
10 Brian Gagnon SR Connecticut 1:47.88
Beat Kitur at the IC4A's for his second career IC4A title...2010 Big East Champion in the 800...Indoors last season, Gagnon was part of the 4x800-meter relay team that set a world best time in 2009, coming in with a time of 7:20.07...that was was the fastest 4x800-meter time in the world in 2009, the fastest collegiate time since 1993 and was the seventh-fastest run by an American team.
