March 12, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA has qualified 14 student-athletes to compete in 15 events at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The two-day event will be hosted at the Randal Tyson Track Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas starting Friday.

NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP LINK

C-USA INDOOR TRACK & FIELD NOTEBOOK & TOP TIMES

UTEP qualified six student-athletes in seven events. Headline the group is newcomer Blessing Okagbare who will be competing in the women's long and triple jump events over the weekend. Okagbare was named the Mountain Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coach's Association earlier this week and holds the NCAA second- and third-best marks in the events, respectively. Also competing in the triple jump for the Miners will be Nelly Tchayem. Halimat Ismaila and Kelly Young will be participating in the 60m and 800m dashes, respectively. The 800m men's race will feature Elias Koech and Dominic Tanui of UTEP. Koech sports the NCAA top time of 1:46.77 in the event.

Memphis and Houston will have two student-athletes at nationals, followed by Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Miss and UAB with one each.

Ten C-USA student-athletes enter the NCAA Championships with Top-10 performances.

Provisional qualifiers advanced to nationals if the times were 16th-best-or-better on the season.

UTEP EARNS REGIONAL HONORS
The UTEP track team garnered three indoor track regional honors, with Head Coach Bob Kitchens named Women's Coach of the Year and newcomer Blessing Okagbare grabbing the Women's Field Athlete of the Year award, as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coach's Association Monday. Additionally, Calvin Robinson was tabbed the Mountain Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year.

Kitchens guided UTEP to a second-place finish behind Rice at the Conference USA Championships. The Miners had three gold medalists with five first-place and nine top-three finishes in scoring 114 points to Rice's 133 points. The women's team is currently ranked 17th in the nation. Kitchens has been the head coach at UTEP since 1988.

Okagbare is ranked in the top three in the long jump (21-10) and triple jump (44-9) entering the NCAA Indoor Championships. She won both events at the Conference USA meet, setting meet and school records in both events as the Miners finished second in team scoring.

In his fourth season at UTEP, Robinson furthered his reputation as an excellent jumps coach, as Okagbare will be joined at the NCAA Indoor Championships by teammate Nelly Tchayem in the triple jump.