April 22, 2007

Queens, NY --Wagner College sophomore Alaina Alfano (East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) became just the second Wagner track and field athlete to qualify in season for the NCAA Regionals after she took home second place in the long jump at the Metropolitan Championships this weekend. Alfano's mark of 6.07 meters was good for second place and punched a ticket to the regionals slated for late May at Florida State University.

Alfano's finish was part of fifth place finish for the women at the METS Championships while the men took home tenth place. Along with the long jump Alfano grabbed fourth place in the 100 meter hurdles at 14.92 and fourth in the high jump at 1.60 meters.

Joining in the scoring for the women was Noemie Wilson (Windsor, CO/Windsor) who tallied fifth in the 100 meter hurdles at 15.16 seconds and Brecken Drager (Loomis, CA/Del Oro) who took home sixth place in the 1500 meters at 4:46.06. A school record was just missed in the 4x400 relay when Wagner took fifth place with a time of 3:59.65. The 4x100 relay was not to be overlooked as that group pulled down a second place time of 49.37.

In the throwing events Wagner took third, fourth, and sixth place in the hammer throw. Ashley Simon (King of Prussia, PA/Upper Merion Area) landed in third at 46.48 meters, Gwendolyn Moore (Teaneck, NJ/Teaneck) in fourth at 42.39 meters, and Crystal Smith (Zenda, WI/Big Foot) in sixth at 41.23. Smith also had a top ten finish in the discus at 36.90 meters.

For the men sophomore Stefano Petraglia (Staten Island, NY/Msgr Farrell/URI) took first place in the discus with a toss of 46.60 meters. Freshman James Johnston (Middle Island, NY/Longwood) was good for fourth in the 3000 meter steeplechase at 10:00.55. In other new senior Jason DeGennaro (Toms River, NJ/TR East) took home seventh in the 200 meter dash at 22.61, and Blake Lintelman (Coral Springs, FL/West Point) took seventh in the shot put with a distance of 13.66 meters.

Wagner will next be in action this coming weekend when they take part in the world famous Penn Relays held in Philadelphia, PA.