Mullarkey Breaks 5 Minute Mile
SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- Swarthmore senior Cait Mullarkey inched closer to a spot in the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships, breaking her own school record in the mile race with a victory at the E.C.A.C. Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships Saturday afternoon.
Mullarkey (Wilmington, Del. / Ursuline Academy) out-ran 12 competitors on the campus of Tufts University in suburban Boston, eclipsing the five-minute barrier with a new school-record time of 4:59.54. The time is an NCAA provisional qualifier and as of early Sunday morning, Mullarkey ranked 14th among the national entrants (typically 12 to 13 runners are invited to compete at the national meet).
“Cait gets stronger with every race she runs,” said Swarthmore head coach Peter Carroll. “Typically as the season wears on, runnners’ times drop off. This has not been the case for Cait, the more she runs, the lower the times she posts.”
The official invitations for the national meet will be announced early this week.
The 2009 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships will take place on March 13-14 at the Rose-Hullman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.