May 14, 2008

2008 C-USA OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

2008 C-USA OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

C-USA OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD NOTEBOOK AND TOP PERFORMANCES

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA is set to host its 13th Annual Outdoor Track and Field Championship in El Paso, Texas, this weekend. The three-day event is slated for Thursday-Saturday, May 15-17, at Kidd Field on UTEP's campus. This will mark the second time in the last three years the Miners have hosted the outdoor event.

A total of six females and eight males will look to defend their 2007 crowns. UTEP's men's and women's outdoor programs enter the championship event with USTFCCCA national rankings of No. 9 and No. 11, respectively. The Miner men won the league title in 2006 and were runner-ups in 2007, while the women have placed second the last two years.

The 2007 championship saw the Memphis men and Rice women capture their first C-USA outdoor track and field titles. However, Houston has been the traditional powerhouse in the league winning six women's titles and five on the men's side.

Thursday's events will feature the heptathlon and decathlon at 9 a.m. (Mountain Time) as well as the men's and women's hammer throws and concluding the day will be the 10,000-meter runs at 7:30 p.m. The heptathlon and decathlon events will crown new champions, but the hammer and 10,000m events will have defending champions looking to repeat their 2007 titles.

Friday's running events get underway at 5:30 p.m. MT with the women's 1500-meters and wraps up with the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase at 9:20 p.m. The majority of Friday's events are preliminary races, building up to Saturday's championship races starting at 5 p.m.

All session championship tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for youth, while single session tickets are $10 and $5. C-USA students with a valid I.D. are admitted free, while adult military personal are admitted for $7 and youth military for $4. Tickets are available by calling (915) 747-5234.

The men's decathlon consists of the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run. Houston sophomore Wesley Bray currently ranks 20th in the nation in the decathlon with 7,251 points, while Rice sophomore Philip Adam is No. 25 with 7,157 points.

The women's competition will be a heptathlon, with the athletes performing the 100-meter hurdles, 200-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, javelin and 800-meter run. Tulane's Arielle Minor, a sophomore, is the only C-USA female athlete that has competed in this event during the outdoor season. She scored 4,322 points at the LSU Tiger Invitational on April 12.

Memphis sophomore Steffan Nerdal is set to defend his hammer title, while junior Marissa Daniels of Rice will attempt to repeat her 10,000m crown. Nerdal won the indoor 35-lb. weight throw and was awarded Performance of the Meet. He also owns a C-USA best and the nation's ninth-best throw of 67.43m in the hammer this season.

Daniels has had a solid distance career for the Owls, winning the 2007 10,000m and 2006 5,000m outdoor crowns as a well as being a member of the 2008 and 2007 indoor championship teams and the 2007 cross country champions.

UTEP has five student-athletes defending 2007 titles and three going for their third individual conference crown in as many years. Two-time champions and seniors Japheth Ng'ojoy and Patrick Mutai will compete in the 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase, respectively, while senior Alex van der Merwe, who ranks fourth in the NCAA (74.62m), will attempt to win his third consecutive javelin title. Ng'ojoy could become the first distance runner to win three-straight C-USA individual crowns in the 10,000m. He currently owns the nation's ninth-best time of 28:33.68 in the event. Senior Stephen Samoei will compete in the 5,000m for the first time this season. He won the 2007 title in a time of 14:07.73.

Looking to win her third-straight hammer crown is UTEP junior Nina Schvedoff. If Schvedoff repeats her title, she'll become the first three-time individual champion in the women's hammer throw.

UTEP will also look to seven-time All-American and 15-time conference champion Mickael Hanany for valuable points this weekend. He ranks first nationally in the high jump (2.31m) and second in the long jump (8.03m). The Miner women also have sophomore Blessing Okagbare, the national leader in the triple jump (13.81m) and second best in the long jump (6.78m) as well as senior Nelly Tchayem, who ranks fifth in the NCAA in the triple jump (13.58m).

Only Rhian Clark of Houston has claimed three-straight pole vault titles (2000-02), but this weekend Rice junior Rachel Greff will attempt to match her accomplishment. Greff enters the league meet ranked No. 8 in the NCAA with a clearance of 4.20m.

Others looking to defend their 2007 titles on the women side includes Houston's Seun Adigun in the 100m hurdles; Chandra Ewing of Rice in the 400m hurdles; and SMU's Christina Mueller in the discus.

Adigun sports a season-best time of 13.52 in the event, second only to UTEP's Quashanda Welch's 13.23. Ewing ranks fourth-best in the league with a time of 1:00.78 in the 400m hurdles, while UCF's Lizzie Harris sports the top time of 59.80 in the event.

Mueller leads the league and ranks No. 24 in the NCAA with a career-best throw of 52.18m in the discus. SMU also looks to earn points from freshmen sensation Silje Fjortoft. Fjortoft, C-USA Cross Country Freshman of the Year, will compete in the women's 3,000m steeplechase where she ranks second-best in the nation with a time of 9:59.01. She's one of only two runners this season that has recorded a time under the 10-minute mark in the race.

In addition, senior Andrea Kvetova of the Mustangs enter the championship with a league-best and No. 7 ranking of 52.70m in the women's javelin throw, while Memphis' Susan King sports the NCAA's fourth best throw of 17.53m in the shot put. King, a senior, has ranked among the nation's elite in the shot put for both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

For the men, Southern Miss' Cornelius Duncan will attempt to win his second-straight 400m crown, followed by Amaechi Oselukwue of Memphis in the 110m hurdles and Houston's Alex Bentley in the pole vault.

Duncan, a senior, clocked the nation's 25th best time of 46.36 in the 400m at the Golden Eagle Invitational on March 21. Oselukwue enters the meet with a season-best time of 15.03, while Kris Bell of East Carolina holds the top C-USA performance of 14.56.

Bentley will get competition from the nation's top pole vaulter Jason Colwick of Rice. Colwick has cleared 5.55m to hold the nation's top mark. Bentley and teammate Derek Schutz are tied at No. 48 with a clearance of 5.05m.

For live results of the 2008 C-USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship can be viewed at http://conferenceusa.cstv.com/championships/08-c-otrack-championship.html or http://www.flashresults.com/flashtexas/cusaoutdoor08/.