NCAA Track Regionals Concludes With Solid C-USA Performances
May 29, 2007 IRVING, Texas - Regional competition in the Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field Championships came to a close Saturday at sites around the country. The NCAA Championships will be held in Sacramento, Calif., on June 6-9. Highlighting Conference USA action was Houston senior Ebonie Floyd who won the 100 and 200 meter finals Saturday at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Des Monies, Iowa. The Houston, Texas native, who took the fastest prelim time into the final, advanced to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., won the 100 meters with her finish of 11.15. The finish sets a season best for Floyd. Later in the afternoon, Floyd ran the 200 meters in 22.32 for the top spot. The finish currently ranks as the second fastest time in the world and replaces the Midwest Regional record of 22.68 set by Virgil Hodge of TCU during Friday's prelims. The following are wrap-ups from each C-USA program that competed in regionals this past weekend. EAST CAROLINA Salisbury finished fourth in the hammer throw with a mark of 57.83 meters, while Myers placed third in the hammer throw with a toss of 62.87 meters. The duo will now travel to Sacramento, Calif. to compete in the NCAA National Championships June 6-9. Other ECU Noteable Performances: HOUSTON The Houston, Texas native, who took the fastest prelim time into the final, advanced to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., won the 100 meters with her finish of 11.15. The finish sets a season best for Floyd. Later in the afternoon, Floyd ran the 200 meters in 22.32 for the top spot. The finish currently ranks as the second fastest time in the world and replaces the Midwest Regional record of 22.68 set by Virgil Hodge of TCU during Friday's prelims. Floyd, along with teammates freshman Hyleta Young, freshman Quin'shundolyn McPherson and sophomore Seun Adigun ran in the 4x100 finals and finished sixth with a time of 44.88. The team was one spot away from automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships but still have a change to be chosen as an at-large bid. In team scores the women finished ninth with 23 points. The finish matches their highest finish at the Regional set last year. The men were 28th with five points. Following the two-day meet, Floyd was the only Cougar to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. She will have two weeks to prepare for the meet in Sacramento, Calif., on June 6-10. At-large bids to the championship will be announced May 29 at 3 p.m. E.T. Other Houston Noteables Performances: MEMPHIS Lee recorded a distance of 53-01.75 in the shot to earn the victory over Missouri's Krishna Lee. The win gives the two-time All-American the first regional crown of her career and her fourth trip to the NCAA Championships, tying her with former men's distance runner Paul Bannon for the most appearances in school history. The Fort Worth, Texas native never failed to reach the NCAA Championships in either of her indoor and outdoor seasons with Tigers. Nerdal, who came to Memphis in January, surpassed his collegiate best and school record with mark of 211-10 in the hammer. The Norwegian is the first men's athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Gaute Myklebust and Mate Nemeth in 2004. Other Memphis Noteable Performances: RICE Stadel, the Conference USA shot champ who was seventh in the discus Friday, uncorked his best effort of the day on his first attempt, tossing the 16- pound ball 17.46 meters (57-3.5"). He now joins his father, Ken, as a national qualifier. The elder Stadel still holds school records in the shot put and discus. Solares, who won C-USA titles in the 800 and 1500 two weeks ago, entered the meet knowing he only had to place in the top 12 to gain a berth in the national meet since his 3:40.34 at the Arkansas Twilight on May 4 ranked him second nationally. He turned in a 3:42.91 to take seventh and easily advance to the NCAA's. For the women, Funmi Jimoh finished eighth in the 100 meters hurdles and Rachel Greff tied for 11th in the pole vault Saturday. Jimoh, who won the long jump Friday to gain an auto qualifier to nationals, and Greff are in line for at-large berths to the NCAA national meet. Jimoh clocked 13.90 in the 100 hurdles final, while Greff cleared 3.81 meters/12-6. Jimoh became the second Rice regional champion since 2003 with a last-round leap of 6.35 meters (20-10"). The last Owl to capture regional gold was pole vaulter Beth Hinshaw in 2004. Jimoh ran the third leg on the Owls' 4x100 meter relay at 2:15 pm, and ran in the prelims of the 100 meter hurdles at 3:30, but a timing malfunction in her heat of the hurdles forced a re-run 30 minutes later. She won the re-run in 13.74 seconds to advance to Saturday's final, and at 5:00 she returned to capture her first major title in the long jump. Both the men's and women's teams finished tied for 20th in the team. Other Rice Noteables Performances: SMU Kvetova finished second in the javelin with a throw of 50.59 meters while Niare placed fifth in the high jump at 1.81 meters. Niare will be part of the heptathlon competition on Saturday. She is a two-time All-American and is coming off a big performance at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships, winning league titles in the heptathlon and the high jump. Sophomore Christina Mueller placed 14th in the discus event in her first NCAA Regional. Mueller threw for a distance of 46.93 meters. The 2007 C-USA outdoor champion in the discus, Mueller threw for an NCAA qualifying (and collegiate career best) mark of 49.67 meters at the league championships earlier this month. SOUTHERN MISS Liburd had a long jump placed of 20'9.25" and Prudilova had a throw of 143'6". Duncan clocked a time of 46.60 in the 400m, after winning his prelim heat in 45.83 Other Southern Miss Noteables Performances: TULANE Asumnu's time of 11.27 in the 100-meter dash was the best in the eight-runner finals by 0.08 seconds over LSU's Sherry Fletcher. Asumnu's time was a Tulane school record, topping her previous best of 11.31 at the Texas Relays in Austin earlier this season. In the 200-meter dash, Asumnu placed second with a time of 22.70, topping her mark of 22.96 at the Walt Disney World Invitational March 24, 2007. Both marks qualifies the senior for nationals. The Green Wave's 4x100-meter relay team placed fourth in the region, turning in a time of 45.25, just 0.08 out of second place. Junior Taneekwa Ross kicked off the run, followed by freshman Jasmine Momoh and sophomore Shaina Pelham with Asumnu running the final leg. Tulane's 4x400 meter relay team placed fourth, turning in a time of 3:37.38, to pick up five points of the Wave. Momoh started the first 400 meters, followed by freshman Olivia Kizzee. Asumnu ran the third leg with junior Shanon Beelendorf bringing the baton across the line. Nicolette Taku was the Green Wave's lone representative in the field competitions, as she placed tied for 25th in the triple jump. Her distance of 12.37 meters tied Jessica Delaunay of W. Kentucky, and was the sixth-best mark by a freshman. TULSA Becker clocked a 16:14.10 in the 5,000m to finish second in the race and become the first track athlete at TU to earn a bid to the cross country, the indoor and the outdoors national championships in the same school year. Henshaw turned in a 14:04.53 in the men's 5,000m to nab a fifth place finish and guarantee a spot at nationals. His time broke his previous school record in the event by a full three seconds, a mark he set during his last trip to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Drake Relays earlier this season. Other Tulsa Noteable Performances: UAB Junior Whitney Mays ran in the 3000-meter steeplechase, while seniors Erin Harris and Deborah Hawkins competed in the triple jump. Mays was UAB's top finisher, taking 12th place in the 3000-meter steeplechase by clocking a time of 10:46.89. In the triple jump, Harris took the 22nd spot with a mark of 11.93 meters and Hawkins placed 25th with a jump of 11.77 meters. Harris and Hawkins also competed in the long jump on Friday, taking 21st and 24th, respectively, with marks of 5.48 meters and 5.38 meters. Other UAB Noteables Performances: UCF She qualified for the regional after throwing a school record 160-3" at the Miami Elite Invitational in mid-April and also owned the team's best mark in the shot put, establishing a UCF freshman record at 46-5.25". Thanks to her record-setting effort earlier in the season, Thames was invited to compete at the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals, which take place June 20-24 in Indianapolis, Ind. UTEP The Miners had two champions with Alex van der Merwe and Elias Koech taking golds. Van der Merwe took the javelin with a season-best marking of 225-11" (68.87). Koech ran 1:47.99 to win the 800-meter run handily. UTEP's other automatic qualifiers included All-Americans Patrick Mutai, Fatimoh Muhammed and Nelly Tchayem. Mutai placed fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, running 8:52.32, Muhammed crossed in a lifetime best of 2:03.03 to take the silver in the women's 800 and Tchayem tied for second in the triple jump with a leap of 42-9 1/2 (13.04). UTEP also had six student-athletes and one relay remain in contention for at-large bids by finishing in the top 12. The Miners finished the weekend with a total of six NCAA automatic qualifier with Erma Gene Evans winning the javelin. Evans, who arrived in town only two and a half hours before her competition began, won the event to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships with a throw of 177-7 (54.14). This group will join Stephen Samoei and Japheth Ng'ojoy, who will be entered in 10,000-meter run, at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., from June 6-9. The rest of UTEP's finishers, who did not place in the top five, will have to wait until next week to find if they have earned an at-large bids. UTEP took ninth out of 32 teams on the women's side with 29 points and the men were 10th out of 36 teams with 30 points. Other UTEP Noteables Performances:
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