Former Track & Field Star Kerri Gallagher Places Third at U.S. Championships

Bronx, N.Y. – It was a busy weekend for some Fordham University track and field alumni as Kerri Gallagher, FCRH '11, placed third in the 1500m at the USATF Outdoor Championships and Lester Taylor, FCRH '15, won the 800m at the Bahamas National Open Track and Field Championships.
 
Gallagher, who races for Team Oiselle and the New York Athletic Club, took third in the 1500m finals in Eugene, Oregon, on Sunday. As the third place finisher she will be a member of the U.S. team that travels to Europe this summer where she will have a chance to qualify for the IAAF World Championships to be held from August 22-30 in Beijing.
 
Gallagher qualified for the 1500m finals at the championships by taking third in her heat in a time of 4:08.70 and then placed third in the finals in a time of 4:15.81, behind only event winner Jennifer Simpson (4:14.86) and runner-up Shannon Rowbury (4:14.99).
 
Gallagher wasn't the only former Ram competing in the 1500m at the USATF Championships as Melissa Salerno, FCRH '08, MEd '10, placed eighth in her heat in a time of 4:25.65.
 
This past spring, Gallagher, a Belle Harbor, N.Y. native, won the Olympic Development Women's Mile at the Penn Relays. She covered the distance in a time of 4:34, three seconds in front of second-place finisher Sheila Reid, a former NCAA Cross Country champion and Canadian Olympian.  
 
As a senior at Fordham in 2010-2011, Gallagher won two events and set two Atlantic 10 meet records at the Atlantic 10 Indoor Championship, winning the 1000m and mile to earn First Team All-Conference honors in each and set meet records in both. Her winning time in the mile run of 4:48.60 broke the old conference mark of 4:49.71 by La Salle's Toniann Razzi in 2000 while her time in the 1000m of 2:51.43 snapped the 2006 A-10 record of 2:52.79, held by La Salle's Elizabeth Geiger. Gallagher also won the 800m at the 2011 Metropolitan Championship, breaking her own school record and qualified for the ECAC Championship in the 800m, 1000m and mile while twice being named A-10 Performer of the Week
 
In the spring of 2011, Gallagher won the 1500m at the Raleigh Relays with one of the top women's 1500m times in the country that year (4:26.34), the second fastest women's 1500m time Fordham history. She also won the 800m and the 1500m at the 2011 Metropolitan Championships and placed second in the 1500m at the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships.
 
Gallagher was also named to the Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team in 2010 and 2011.
 
In the Bahamas last week, Taylor won the 800m in a time of 1:54.25 at the Bahamas National Open Track and Field Championships. He earned indoor track and field team MVP honors this past winter where broke school records in the 800m (1:49.65) and as a member of the distance medley relay (9:47.07), which earned Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors.  He also set the Bahamian national indoor record in the 800m, which qualified him for the 2015 Pan-American games to be held this summer in Toronto.
 
During the 2015 outdoor season, Taylor earned Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors in the 800m with a second place finish in a time of 1:52.07.
 
The BAAA and the Bahamas Olympic Committee now have the task of naming the teams for the various international meets this summer. On Tuesday, the BOC will announce the team for the Pan Am Games in July in Toronto, Canada, while the BAAA have to determine who will go to the NACAC and the Word Championships. No date has been confirmed on when their announcement will come.
 

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