Bonesville: The Authoritative Independent Voice of East Carolina

News & Features from ECU, the AAC and Beyond

  • Home
  • News & Features
  • Recruiting
  • Photos
  • Audio
  • Roundup
  • Comments
  • Legacy Archives

ECU 2021 Football Recruiting Class | ECU 2021-22 Hoops Recruiting Class

The Bradsher Beat
One ECU team’s season is still alive

June 7, 2018 By Bethany Bradsher Leave a Comment

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

More than 400 East Carolina student-athletes started the 2017-’18 school year after a summer of training, full of hopes for their upcoming season.

After campaigns for 18 different sports with varying degrees of success, only two are still competing.

Stefano Migliorati (ECU Media Relations photo)

Hosting a regional didn’t end the way the baseball team or the Pirate Nation had hoped, and even with the happy news of three ECU players drafted by major league teams this week, Diamond Bucs fans still have to wait eight months for the next first pitch — and football is still 86 days away.

But up in track and field mecca Eugene, Oregon, shot putter Galissia Cause and 800-meter runner Stefano Migliorati represent the 0.5 percent of Pirate athletes still battling in purple and gold at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Head track and field coach Curt Kraft, who has already seen 61 athletes compete in either the indoor or outdoor national championship in his previous 12 years leading the program, said that a trip to Eugene is the ultimate in his sport.

“To get somebody to this meet is very difficult, and to get two is even more gratifying,” Kraft said. “There’s a lot of representation from Power Five schools out here, and to represent our university at this meet and to wear that uniform, it’s a pretty neat thing.”

Migliorati, who has won the American Athletic Conference 800-meter title for the past two years, set the ECU record at the NCAA East Regional last month, running the distance in 1:48.28. A native of Calvisato, Italy, Migliorati also won the Italian national title in the 800 meters last summer.

He ran his preliminary heat at the NCAA championships Wednesday night. The top eight finishers qualified for the finals to be held on Friday, but Migliorati finished 20th with a time of 1:51.68.

The eighth place runner, Robert Heppenstall representing Wake Forest, ran the two laps in 1:47.40, four seconds faster than Migliorati in that meet but less than a second faster than Migliorati’s personal best and school record.

Galissia Cause (ECU Media Relations photo)

Thin margins like the one Migliorati faced in the 800 meters are one of the defining characteristics of the national meet, along with the large, track-and-field-savvy crowds that fill the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

Migliorati and Cause are both seniors competing at the pinnacle of their sport for the first time, working hard to perform their best while also embracing an experience they will never forget.

“They’re excited to be here, there’s no target on their back,” Kraft said. “Not that they don’t want to do well and not that the expectations aren’t very, very high, but they are coming in very loose and very relaxed.”

Cause, who came to ECU from Gainesville, VA, competes in both the shot put and the discus, and even though the shot put is her primary event she won the American conference title in the discus. She competed in both events at the NCAA East Preliminary at the end of May and finished eighth in the discus to qualify for the championship meet. She threw 16.58 meters for her second-best performance of the season, and she is scheduled to throw in the national championship at 9:10 (eastern time) Thursday night.

If Cause finishes in the top eight, she will be named All-American and finish her college career with a bang. But regardless of the result, both Cause and Migliorati have fulfilled their chief goal since arriving at ECU. In earning a trip to Eugene they are among the 24 from each event who get to experience collegiate track and field’s crowning event.

Just as Omaha is a one-word destination to which college baseball teams aspire, Eugene now hosts the Outdoor Championships every year. Kraft’s goal is that Pirate athletes — the last men or women standing — will make it an annual pilgrimage.

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: News & Features

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ECU Schedules

  • ECU 2020 Football Schedule
  • ECU 2020-21 Basketball Schedule
  • ECU 2021 Baseball Schedule
Tweets by bonesville

Recent News & Features

Basketball News
Tigers capitalize on Pirates’ plight

AUDIO FEATURE
Joe Dooley presser

VIEW FROM THE EAST
Dooley walks dogs as Tigers loom

Basketball News
Dooley sidelined by virus

VIEW FROM THE EAST
Pirates turn page to 2021

AUDIO FEATURE
Joe Dooley presser

Basketball News
ECU hoops in limbo for the time being

Basketball News
Pirates, Bearcats on hold

Basketball News
Bulls use run to top Pirates, 69-63

VIEW FROM THE EAST
Pirates eye USF after tough time at Tulane

More News & Features

Writer Archives

  • Bonesville Staff
  • Brian Bailey
  • Sammy Batten
  • Bethany Bradsher
  • Brett Friedlander
  • Al Myatt
  • NFF
  • Greg Vacek
  • Danny Whitford

Recent Web Roundups

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Monday, January 25, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Sunday, January 24, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Saturday, January 23, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Friday, January 22, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Thursday, January 21, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Tuesday, January 19, 2021

GREG VACEK'S DAILY WEB ROUNDUP
Monday, January 18, 2021

More Web Roundups

Copyright © 2021 Bonesville.net · Website by Seaport Webworks. · Log in · Privacy Policy