UW Parkside Race Walkers Miranda Melville(sophomore), Le'erin Voss(junior), and Erika Lamp(freshman) were each named to the USA National Race Walking Team this past week. The athletes earned their positions at last months USA National Championships held at the University of Oregon.
Melville and Voss placed 4th and 7th in the Senior Women's 20 km Race Walk, the top 8 finishers in the event capture the honor.
Both Melville and Voss were competing in their first ever senior championship event, Melville was the U20 USA Race Walker for the year in 2008 and Voss was runner-up to the honor in '07. Melville earned a personal best time of 1:45:38, bettering her previous mark of 1:47:01 that she earned in May at the UWP May Races. She also earned a career best 10 km time over the 2nd 10 km of the race, covering the distance in 51:43. Her previous best was from last year when she recored at 53:03 at the World Cup Junior Race in Russia. Voss covered the distance in 1:51:21, her second best time ever.
The winner of the event was Teresa Vaill, the US representative in the '04 Olympics and runner up was Joann Dow, the US representative at the '08 Olympics. Their times were 1:37:12 and 1:39:59.
Lamp earns spot on Team USA for Pan Am Junior Event
Erika Lamp finished 3rd in the USA Junior (U20) Women's 10000m Race Walk event that was held in conjuction with the USA Senor Championships at the University of Oregon. She walked a career best time of 58:17 and qualified to compete at the Pan Am Junior Track Championships that will be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad at the end of this month. She will also compete in the USA vs Canada Junior Race Walk Dual Meet to be held in mid-August in Minneapolis.
She finished behind winner Allison Chin of Cincinnati and Abby Dunn of Portland, ME. Their times were 56:54 and 57:32.
UWP ALUMNI DOMINATE USA MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM
Current UWP Volunteer Assistant Coach's to the Track Program, Ben Shorey and Stephen Quirke each walked career best times and placed 3rd and 5th respectively at last months USA National Track Championships 20 km Race Walk that was held at the University of Oregon. Shorey's improved on his best by over 30 seconds with a time of 1:27:17 and Quirke improved on his best by close to 90 seconds with a time of 1:29:40.
Each earned spots on the USA National Team by virtue of their Top 8 finishes. Although none of the finishers earned qualifying times for the World Championships in Berlin in August, members of the National Team are eligible for training funding and assistance by virtue of their finishing place.
The winner of the event was 2 time Olympian and UWP Alum, Tim Seaman. His winning time was 1:26:14. This was the 35th USA National Championship Title in Seaman's career, which ranks him as #3 on the all time USA List in all events. Other UWP Alums that placed in the Top 6 were John Nunn, '04 Olympian in 4th (1:27:42) and Mike Tarantino in 6th with a time of 1:30:54.
UWP Track Coach and Race Walk Coordinator, Mike De Witt commented on the National Championship Meet and selections to Team USA: "It was an excellent weekend of race walking for the UWP Program, both current and past. The UWP Women raced with excellent focus and intensity, not only walking career best marks, earning USA National Honors, but doing so with near flawless technique. It is always a great honor to earn a USA Uniform and this young group of women paid their dues all winter and spring to get to the championship meet in career best form." "The UWP Alums accomplished a finish not unsimilar to some of the past collegiate championship races that each of the finishers was a part of. The men's race was one of the harder fought National Championships in years. The veteran Tim Seaman moved strong about 2.5 km for the field and captured a well earned title."
