Terps Ready for ACC Indoor Track

Feb. 23, 2012

BOSTON, Mass. - The University of Maryland track and field teams are hoping strong performances during the early part of the indoor track season has prepared them for this weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, to be held at the Reggie Lewis Track Center and hosted by Boston College.

The Terrapins will get into the action on Friday with preliminary rounds on the track and with some field-event finals beginning at noon. The meet continues Saturday at 11 a.m. and is scheduled to finish around 4 p.m. with awards ceremonies.

Maryland has one big event and some student-athletes to watch at the ACC Indoor meet. If prior performance is any indication, the Terrapins could pull off some surprises this weekend.

Though the ECAC/IC4A Indoor meet in March is currently not on Maryalnd's schedule, its qualifying standards give an indication of the quality of marks in various events. At this point in the season, 23 Terrapins have hit qualifying marks for that meet, considerably more than at this point in the previous few seasons.

One event to watch is the first one on Friday - the women's high jump. Maryland has four student-athletes seeded among the top 10 in that event, including sophomore Amina Smith, whose 5-11.25 leap two weeks ago at the Millrose Collegiate Invitational stands as the best in the ACC so far this season. Freshman Thea LaFond (5-8.50), junior Lucile Cancre (5-7) and freshman Amber Melville (5-7) also have top performances so far this season.

LaFond is also seeded seventh in the triple jump, while senior Ashley Hendrix is 10th in the long jump heading into the championships.

The throwing events could also be strong for the Terps on the women's side, with junior Moriah Young seeded second and Jessie Echard in 10th in the weight throw, while Young is ranked seventh in the shot put.

On the men's side, senior Zack Ray has returned from an injury that kept him out of all last season and has picked up where he left off. Ray is among the seeded performers in the long jump and 60-meter hurdles.

Sophomore Josh Haghighi is ranked eighth in the weight throw, with high-jumper Jon Hill in ninth after competing in only one meet this indoor season following a summer injury.

There are various ways to keep up with the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend. Includingthe above links, fans can follow on Twitter:

Account: @theACCchamps
Hashtag: #ACCITF

- Terps -

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