Maria Dalzot of Morgantown qualified for the United States of America Track & Field Junior National Championships at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, New Jersey late Friday night with a time of 17:49 for 5 kilometers. The qualifying time for the national championships was 17:55 so Dalzot easily achieved the standard in her second attempt at the distance. Dalzot placed 11th among 29 college and post-college runners and had the good fortune of being in a pack of runners from Syracuse, Columbia and Princeton who were attempting to hit the Big East Conference qualifier of 17:53 which helped pull her along to an 18 second personal record for the distance. Dalzot said \"I was one second over pace at two miles but was feeling confident that I could drop the pace over the final mile. I\'m thrilled with how I raced and I\'m even happier with the time.\" After a 5:45 first mile and 5:46 second, a 5:35 last mile proved she ran a very smartly paced race.
Dalzot will travel to Indianapolis on June 21st to compete against the best college freshman and high school distance runners at the 5 kilometer distance. Dalzot will now concentrate on the 3200m run in order to qualify for the Nike National Championships on June 16th in Greensboro, NC. She will make two attempts to hit the qualifying time of 11:02 at that distance in May and June.