Former SFU Student-Athlete Brian Sell Competing In U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials This Weekend

LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 1, 2007) – United States marathon runners are finding themselves in the middle of a comeback in a sport dominated by Kenyans, and former Saint Francis University student-athlete Brian Sell is in the thick of the race.

Sell, a graduate of Northern Bedford High School and a 2001 graduate of Saint Francis, is widely regarded as one of the nation’s top distance runners. The U.S. Olympic men’s marathon trials take center stage on Saturday in New York City. Sell will be among 134 runners who have qualified for the 26.2-mile race through Central Park, where crowds are expected to top 100,000. The first three finishers will earn a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

NBC’s Today Show will carry the start of the race live at 7:30 a.m.. NBC.com will webcast the entire race, and highlights will be shown on NBC at 1:30 p.m.

Sell runs for the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, which has 13 runners who have qualified for this weekend’s Olympic Trials. Sell, who finished fourth overall and was the second-place American at last year’s Boston Marathon, will be looking to top his personal best time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, 47 seconds, which got him a sixth-place finish in the Chicago Marathon in 2006.