June 9, 2009

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Twin sisters Holly and Lucy Van Dalen (Wanganui, New Zealand) will complete their record-breaking sophomore seasons this week at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Appearing in the first Outdoor Championship of their careers, Holly will run in the women's 5,000-meter race while Lucy will compete in the women's 1,500. When the duo qualified for the Championship two weeks ago at the East Regional it completed the Championship trifecta for the SBU cross country and track & field teams, which will compete in all three of the NCAA Championships this season.

Lucy made school history earlier this year when she became the first Stony Brook student-athlete to ever compete at the NCAA Indoor Championship. When the sisters run this week, it will be only the second-time in school history the Seawolves have competed at the Outdoor Championship. Dana Hastie '08 finished 15th in last year's 10,000-meter race. Holly will compete first, running in the preliminary heat at 9:40 p.m. ET (8:40 p.m. CT) on Wednesday night.. Lucy's race is scheduled for the following night at 8:55 p.m. ET (7:55 p.m. CT).

Holly and Lucy will be competing with the best 26 runners in the nation in their respective races. Head Coach Any Ronan says their first goal this week will be to advance from the preliminary heats into the finals, a feat no Seawolf has ever achieved.

"They really deserve everything they have achieved this year," said Ronan. "They made a commitment 12 months ago with the goal being to make it to Arkansas and they have. They've done everything they needed to to achieve their goal and here they are."

In order to automatically advance to the finals, Holly needs to finish within the top-six of her heat. If she fails to do so, she can still grab an at-large bid into the finals by having one of the top-four times among the remaining runners. Lucy needs a top-three finish or a top-three time to make into the finals. Holly and Lucy enter their races with the 18th and fifth fastest times in the country, respectively.

If they do advance to the finals, Holly will run on Friday night at 9:15 p.m. ET (8:15 p.m. CT) with her race likely being televised by CBS College Sports, which can be found on channel 152 on Dish Network and channel 613 on DIRECTV. Lucy's final would be on Saturday at 2:09 p.m. ET (1:09 p.m. CT) and would also likely be televised by CBS Sports.