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News Release

UMBC Track and Field's Hyland Picks Up Third Straight Weekly Award

1/29/2008

Junior Alex Hyland has been named a performer of the week for the past three weeks.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Junior Alex Hyland (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South/Toms River/St. Francis (Pa.)) was named the America East Women’s Track Performer of the Week for the week ending Jan. 28, the conference announced Tuesday.

Hyland has won the weekly women’s track award for the past three weeks, the most times a Retriever has been honored since Mike Zyvoloski garnered four weekly awards during the 2004-05 indoor season.

Hyland dropped 12 seconds off her personal best time in the 3000-meter run at last weekend’s Penn State National Invitational to finish second in the invitational heat of the event in 9:40.42.  Hyland also set a new UMBC school record in the event, breaking her previous mark of 9:52.47 which she set at the Bucknell Gulden Relays on Jan. 12.

Hyland’s time is just two-tenths of a second shy of the current America East Championship record of 9:40.21, which was set in 2006 by Boston University’s Marisa Ryan and just six seconds off the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 9:34.00.

The junior has already qualified for the ECAC Championships in March in both the 3000 and one-mile runs and looks poised to make a statement as she competes at her first America East Indoor Track and Field Championship in February since joining the Retrievers in 2007.

The weekly award is the fifth for the Retrievers this season, as senior Ashley Fauntleroy (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) and sophomore Keith Onto (Point Pleasant, N.J./Point Pleasant Borough/St. Francis (Pa.)) took their respective field performer accolades in the first two weeks of the season.  So far this season, UMBC has had a recipient of a weekly award for every reporting week.