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Michelle Gallagher
(Sacred Heart Cathedral) signs with Iona College
For the 2nd year in a row the Sacred Heart Cathedral track & field
team
sees one of its own sign a NCAA Letter of Intent to attend a 4 year
university on an athletic scholarship. On Thursday, April 17th,
Michelle Gallagher signed an agreement to attend Iona College in New
York.
Gallagher is coming off a terrific weekend that saw her run PR's in both
the 1600 and 3200 at the Arcadia Invitational. She ran a 4:57.8 1600
leg in the 4X1600 Relay on Friday Night to help the Irish place 2nd in
their heat and 7th overall out of 29 teams in the meet. Their time of
21:46.52 ranks them in the top dozen or so in the entire nation.
On Saturday Night in the invitational 3200, Gallagher had a break out
race in which she placed 5th in 10:33.04. The pack went out a a
relatively slow pace, which allowed Gallagher to run with the leaders
at
a comfortable clip of 80 seconds per lap. This lasted through the first
mile, which was covered in 5:21. The pace picked up slightly on the 5th
lap, which is when the key point of the race occurred. "There was
a
point during the 5th lap that the lead group of 5 or 6 started to
breakaway," explained SHC Coach Andy Chan, "Michelle was in
about 8th
place and she quickly surged by a couple of runners to catch back up
with the lead pack. That was the key to the race right there." From
that
point on, Gallagher would run stay with the leaders, running 78, 78 and
77 for laps 5, 6 and 7. With a lap to go, she was still pretty close to
the lead pack of 4. She covered the final 400 in 76 seconds earning her
a 5th place place medal. Not only was it a :20 PR, a school record but
it now ranks her #1 in the CCS and #2 in the entire state of California
in the 3200. "There's still a long way to go in the season,"
said Chan,
"But to say I am proud of her or that I am excited by this would
be a
huge understatement. In the past Michelle's been a good runner. This
proves she's a good racer." Among the people Michelle beat out in
this
race were 4 Foot Locker Cross Country National Finalists from the fall
of 2002: Katelyn Kaltenbach (6th), Jamie Geissler (7th), Amber Harper
(11th), and Ruth Graham (23rd), and two cross country state champions:
Melissa Grelli, California Div III (8th) and Collier Lawrence, Nevada
(19th).
Last year, SHC's Shannon Rowbury received a full athletic scholarship
to
attend Duke University, where is currently enjoying an excellent
freshman year. In March Rowbury was the highest placing American
freshman in the Mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Attached are photos of Gallagher signing her papers at a brief ceremony
on the SHC campus before school. All photos taken by her mother,
Margaret Gallagher.
To learn more about Michelle's current team/season, visit the team
website:
www.eteamz.com/shct&f
To learn more about Michelle's future team, visit the Iona track &
field
website:
http://www.iona.edu/gaels/main.cfm?sportid=8
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