July 18, 2004

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Mary Jayne Harrelson, Virginia Tech's assistant cross country and distance coach, captured fifth place in the women's 1,500 meter finals on Sunday night at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials held at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento.

Harrelson (Roxboro, N.C.) clocked 4:09.40 for a fifth place finish out of the 13 runner field in the finals.

Dave Cianelli, Tech's director of track and field and cross country stated "Mary Jayne ran tough and raced well today." Her time was her fastest time of the year but it was not quite good enough for Athens," added Cianelli.

Carrie Tollefson (Adidas) won the race in 4:08.32, Jennifer Toomey (Nike) came in second with a time of 4:08.43 while Amy Rudolph (Adidas) finished in third place (4:08.57). All three of these ladies need to meet the Olympic "A" standard by August 9^th in order to compete for Team USA in Athens.

This was Harrelson's second appearance at the U.S. Olympic Trials. In 2000, she took fifth place in the 1,500m with a time of 4:08.76 and sixth place in the 800m (2:02.35).

For more information concerning the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials including results, visit the USATF Web site at www.usatf.org.

Women 1500 Meter Run
================================================================
       World: W 3:50.46  9/11/1993   Yunxia Qu, CHN
    American: A 3:57.12  7/26/1983   Mary Slaney, Athletics West
     Stadium:   4:01.01  7/16/2000   Regina Jacobs, Nike
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals
================================================================
Finals
  1 Carrie Tollefson             adidas                 4:08.32
  2 Jennifer Toomey              Nike                   4:08.43
  3 Amy Rudolph                  adidas                 4:08.57
  4 Jenelle Deatherage           Reebok                 4:08.71
  5 Mary Jayne Harrelson         Nike                   4:09.40
  6 Shalane Flanagan             Nike                   4:11.05
  7 Sally Hauser                 Nike                   4:12.56
  8 Sarah Schwald                Nike                   4:13.12
  9 Amy Mortimer                 Unattached             4:13.64
 10 Heather Sagan                adidas                 4:14.37
 11 Lindsey Gallo                Michigan               4:14.70
 12 Janet Trujillo               Nike                   4:18.15
 13 Bethany Brewster             Wisconsin Ru           4:26.23
 -- Marla Runyan                 Nike                       DNF
 -- Suzy Favor Hamilton          Nike                       DNS