[Pcalumnixctrack] Catarina Rocha Crowned 10, 000 Meter Champion On Day One Of BIG EAST Championships

[Sullivan, Brendan T]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 11, 2018

Contact – Brendan Sullivan (401) 865-1245



Catarina Rocha Crowned 10,000 Meter Champion On Day One Of BIG EAST Championships

The Friars finish the BIG EAST Championships on Saturday, May 12.



GENEVA, OHIO – The Providence College track & field teams competed in the first day of competition at the BIG EAST Championships on Friday, May 12. At the end of competition of day one, the men’s team is in fifth place with 17 points while the women are in sixth place with 16 points.



The day was highlighted by graduate student Catarina Rocha (Peabody, Mass.) winning the women’s 10,000 meters. Rocha, who has won the individual cross country and the indoor 5,000-meter BIG EAST titles this year, took control of the race from the gun and never looked back winning with a personal best time of 33:39.43. Rocha won the race by over 30 seconds. It is the fourth title in Rocha’s Friar career. Senior Mackenzie Barry (Mendham, N.J.) finished third in the race for Providence.



Sophomore Liam Harris (Douglas, County Cork, Ireland) placed second in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase for Providence. In the third steeple of his career, Harris closed hard to claim silver with a time of 9:13.32.



The Providence men also had two scorers in the field events with freshman Chris Shanahan (Westwood, Mass.) and freshman Michael Bittner (Cranston, R.I.). Shanahan finished third in the javelin with a throw of 58.29m. Bittner, meanwhile, placed sixth in the high jump with a leap of 1.86m.



Junior Nick Carleo (Newburyport, Mass.) and junior Michael O’Leary (St. James, N.Y.) both qualified for the finals of the 1,500 meters. Carleo won the second heat of the 1,500-meter preliminaries with a time of 3:52.09. He earned an automatic qualifier for finishing in the top four in his heat and has the fastest mark going into the finals on Saturday. O’Leary finished sixth in the second heat with a time of 3:54.01 and qualified for the finals based on time.



Freshman Jack Carleo (Newburyport, Mass.) qualified for the final of the 800 meters after finishing second in the first preliminary heat with a time of 1:52.48. For finishing in the top two in his heat, Carleo has an automatic qualifier for the final.



Freshman Daniel Rooney (Rochester, N.Y.) qualified for the finals of the 400 meters based on time after running a time of 55.90 in the preliminary heats.


Action on the final day of competition of the BIG EAST Championships will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET with the running of the 4x100 meter relay. The Friars will have athletes competing in finals throughout the day.



Be sure to follow @FriarsXCTrack on twitter for live updates and watch the BIG EAST Digital Network live stream on FoxSportsGo.



-GO FRIARS!-



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