Viparina Produces Top-25 Finish, Monroe 19th in Discus at NCAA East Preliminary

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Freshman Olivia Viparina finished eight spots ahead of her pre-race seeding in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and graduate student Amber Monroe turned in a top-20 finish in the discus on day two of the 2016 NCAA Track & Field East Preliminary on Friday at Hodges Stadium.

Racing for the first time at a national meet, Viparina completed the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 10:28.40, good for 25th place in the 48-person field. Seeded 33rd overall and 11th in her heat of 16 athletes, the Ledgewood, N.J. native took 10th in heat three, surging past a few competitors over the final two laps. Her time was just over 20 seconds back of the mark needed to advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Earlier in the day, Monroe placed 19th overall in the discus throw with a heave of 50.70 meters (166'4"). She missed the top-12 cutoff to advance to the NCAA Championships by just over 1.5 meters, with the 12th-place competitor turning in a toss of 52.24 meters. Monroe was only able to put one of her three throws in play, with her first and third going right of the inbounds line.

Monroe will have another shot to reach the national meet in Eugene, Ore. tomorrow when she competes in the shot put.

UP NEXT
Monroe, along with junior Carol Strock, will compete for the Dukes on the final day of the East Preliminary. Monroe starts the day at 3:30 p.m. with the shot put, while Strock will race in the 1,500-meter run quarterfinals. Strock qualified for the quarters after turning in a personal-best time of 4:22.33 in Thursday's opening round.

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG
Follow the Dukes all weekend long through JMU Track & Field's Twitter account or by visiting the NCAA East Preliminary web portal, which houses event information, live stats and meet results.

POST-RACE INTERVIEW

NO FRESHMAN JITTERS
Olivia Viparina made her debut at an NCAA meet and the freshman didn't let the big meet affect her race. She placed 25th overall, which was eight spots higher than her seed in the East Region. Viparina even made moves in the last half mile, passing a trio of competitors, one of which was a conference runner.

TWO DOWN ONE TO GO
The NCAA East Preliminary comes to a close tomorrow and JMU will have a pair of athletes in pursuit of a bid to the NCAA Championships in Oregon. Monroe enters the shot put with a seed of 14th out of 48 of while Strock turned in the 17th-best time in Thursday's 1,500 qualifier.

PHOTO OF THE DAY - view full photo gallery
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Viparina thankful she completed her first NCAA race Friday night.

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