Five Earn Invitations to NCAA Regionals
5/22/2010 8:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 22, 2010
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Five student-athletes from the University of Maryland have earned berths in next weekend's NCAA East Regional Track & Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C., that are part of a new structure of competition for the outdoor national meet.
Senior Tiffani Long, junior Kiani Profit and sophomore Ashley Hendrix will compete Thursday, May 27 in the women's long jump; junior Kristen Batts will compete in the women's discus on Saturday, May 29, with senior Greg Kelsey entered in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday evening, May 28.
Profit is also among the entrants in the women's heptathlon, which will not have qualifying rounds at the regional meets. She will be seeded fourth among the 24 competitors who have advanced directly to the nationals, to be held June 9-12 at storied Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
The East Region meet will be hosted by North Carolina A&T University at the Irwin Bell Track.
This year for the first time, two regional competitions - the East Region meet in Greensboro and the West Region meet in Austin, Texas - will serve as qualifying rounds for the national meet. The top 48 declared competitors in each region will compete in rounds attempting to move into the top 24 nationally and earn a trip to Eugene.
In nearly every event, a top-12 finish at regionals is necessary to advance to the nationals.
Hendrix, Profit and Long each qualified for the regionals in the long jump at the Maryland Twilight meet earlier this month. Those three combined for a stunning performance in which each had career-bests and earned top-10 marks all-time outdoors at Maryland.
Hendrix won the event at 20 feet, 1.75 inches, with Profit (19-11) and Long (19-8.75) close behind. Hendrix became only the seventh Terrapin woman ever to crack 20 feet in the long jump, while those three jumps rank seventh, eighth and ninth at Maryland.
The Terp trio is ranked 21st, 35th and 44th on the performance list in the East Region.
Batts has a season-best of 161-5 in the women's discus, one of only three Terrapins ever past 160 feet in the event. Batts is ranked 32nd in the East Region currently.
The top 16 in field-event qualifying rounds in Greensboro will get three more attempts to earn a spot in the top 12 and a shot at nationals.
Kelsey went 9:00.12 in the steeplechase at the Colonial Relays in early April for the Terps. His mark ranked fifth all-time at Maryland and was the best mark by a Terrapin in the steeplechase since 1996. He ranked 37th on the East Region performance list.
Kelsey will compete in one of three heats in Greensboro. The top three in each heat and next next three fastest times will make up the 12 qualifiers for nationals.
Profit was an All-American indoors for the Terrapins with her second-place finish in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Nationals. At the Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Championships, she broke a 26-year-old record in the heptathlon by scoring 5,686 points. Three of her performances earned her spots in the all-time top-10 at Maryland.
Junior Alex Lundy also had a qualifying mark for regionals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, but is missing the end of the outdoor-track season with an injury. Maryland's women's 4x100 relay squad missed qualifying for the regional by 0.12 seconds.
