June 8, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Providence College track All-American Mary Cullen (Sligo, Ireland) ran in the preliminary 5,000-meter heat at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship on Wednesday, June 7 in Sacramento, Calif. Cullen ran a time of 16:05.12 to qualify for the finals, which will take place on Friday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m. PST.

Making her third appearance in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship, Cullen's time of 16:05.12 was the fastest in the preliminaries. Cullen, a five-time All-American in cross country and track, will look to win her first NCAA crown on Friday, June 9 when she runs in the finals. She finished second in the 3,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship on March 11 to earn All-America honors.

Cullen is one of two PC female athletes competing in the Championship. Graduate student Aine Hoban (Wakefield, England) will be competing in the 10,000 meters on Thursday, June 8 at 7:20 p.m. PST. On the men's side, senior Martin Fagan (Mullingar, Ireland) also will run the 10,000 meters at 8:00 PST, while sophomore Max Smith (Dunedin, New Zealand) will run in the 1,500-meter preliminaries at 6:15 PST.