BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Senior distance runner Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) ran near the lead for the entire race and earned his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships in the 10000 meters as competition opened in the NCAA East Preliminary at the Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex on Wednesday evening. The other highlight in the first day of events for Villanova came in the national first round heats of the 800 meters where sophomore Sean Dolan (Pennington, N.J.) easily moved on to the quarterfinal round on Friday night. Wednesday's event schedule for the Wildcats also included competition in the javelin and the 1500 meters.
 
Strintzos ran his national semifinal race in the 10K with the impressive level of consistency that has defined so many of his performances in a Villanova singlet. He got off to a good start, paced the field of 48 runners with a 65-second split on his fourth lap around the track to establish good position, then in the second half of the race reeled off 12 consecutive laps with splits of 68 or 69 seconds to easily return to the NCAA Championships in Oregon next month. Strintzos finished the race with a time of 28:42.13, the sixth-fastest time in school history and the second-fastest time that Strintzos has recorded this season. His lifetime PR of 28:34.41 ranks fourth in the Wildcats record book and came at the Virginia Challenge earlier this year. Strintzos came in seventh overall in Wednesday's race to secure one of 12 qualifying spots for the national meet.
 
Graduate student Ryan Cutter (El Sobrante, Calif.) also competed in the semifinal of the 10K and recorded a time of 31:13.23 in his debut at the NCAA East Preliminary. A graduate transfer from the University of Chicago who came to Villanova this season, Cutter made an impact within the Wildcats distance group during the fall cross country season and in the distance events on the track this spring. Earlier in the season he registered a time of 29:00.45 in the 10K at the Penn Relays; the mark currently ranks 12^th in school history and puts Cutter sixth on Villanova's all-time performance list. His time at the Penn Relays shattered his previous top time by more than 43 seconds.
 
The best result for the Wildcats during the afternoon events on Wednesday came from Dolan in the first round of the 800 meters. He competed in the fifth of six heats and secured one of three automatic qualifying spots for the quarterfinal round with his time of 1:47.96. Dolan, competed in the 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials following his redshirt freshman collegiate season last year, is ranked sixth among the 24 qualifiers for the quarterfinal heats scheduled for Friday night. He has excelled in both the 800 meters and the 1500 meters for Villanova and previously reached the quarterfinal round of the 1500 meters at the NCAA East Preliminary last season. In his race on Wednesday, Dolan settled in at the front of the pack early on and eventually pulled ahead of the rest of the field along with Ayman Zahafi of Miami.
 
Senior middle distance runner Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and freshman Sean Donoghue (Dublin, Ireland) ran in the first round of the 1500 meters earlier on Wednesday afternoon. O'Donovan posted a time of 3:51.74 in the second of four heats, while Donoghue crossed the finish line in 4:01.70 in the third heat.
 
First up for Villanova at the start of afternoon competition was the javelin in which sophomores Nick Coffey (Cranston, R.I.) and Andrew Grinnell (New Milford, Conn.) each made their first career appearances at the East preliminary meet. Grinnell came in fifth in the opening flight of the javelin with a distance of 62.80 meters and Coffey threw for 60.42 meters to finish ninth in the first flight.
 
The first day of women's competition at the NCAA East Preliminary comes up on Thursday, while men's action continues on Friday evening.