Feb. 27, 2004

HOUSTON ------ The UAB women's track and field team finds itself in 11th place in the Conference USA Women's Indoor Championships, but unlike years past, it may not stay that way.

The Blazers qualified runners in the 60-meter dash, two in the 60-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash and the 800-meter run for Saturday's finals. It gives UAB an opportunity to finish in the top half of the conference if the team is successful during the meet's second day. It would mean significant improvement over last year's 15 points, 12th place finish.

"We couldn't have asked them to perform any better," head coach Ray Stanfield said. "It puts us in good position heading into tomorrow."

Heading into the final day of competition at Yeoman Field House, South Florida leads the meet with 48.5 points. The Bulls lead by 12.5 points over two-time defending champion Houston which has 36. The rest of the scores include Tulane in third place with 26, TCU 24, East Carolina and Charlotte are tied for fifth with 18, Marquette 15, Cincinnati 13, Louisville 11.5, DePaul 11, UAB 9, Memphis 3 and Southern Mississippi 1.

Junior Judy Shepherd set the tone of the day by finishing fourth in the pentathlon and earning UAB its first five points of the meet. Her event was highlighted by the fact that she set pentathlon personal bests in all five events (60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, 800-meter run) including her first place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.92 seconds.

Shepherd then completed her day by bettering her time in the 60-meter hurdles, this time the individual competition, with a time of 8.69 seconds. She will compete in Saturday's final with teammate Theresa Smith who qualified by running an 8.78. Smith finished third in last year's C-USA Indoor Championships in the same event.

"That's huge what Judy did," Stanfield said. "The pentathlon and then come back to run one of the top times in school history to qualify for the 60-meter hurdle final."

Freshman Petra Ivanova and Oriana Carter put themselves in position to score by qualifying for Saturday's final in the 800-meter run and 60-meter dash respectively. Ivanova's time of 2:14.52 set a new UAB record and shaved nearly five seconds off her previous freshman record of 2:19.01 set at Clemson's Tiger Invitational earlier this month.

Junior Crystal Hunter gave the Blazers an unexpected bonus by qualifying for Saturday's finals in the 200-meters with a personal best time of 25.13, and the distance medley relay team of freshmen Emry McKay, Amanda Hart, Genoah Collins and Elizabeth Ambrus came in fifth during the evening competition to give UAB their final four points of the first day.

The Blazers will also have an opportunity to score in three other events on Saturday. The 4x400-meter relay team comes into the championships as one of the favorites posting the fourth fastest time of the season 3:51.16. Ivanova will participate in the fast heat of the Mile Run, in addition to her 800-meter final, and Ambrus will participate in the 3000-meter run, an event she won at the Appalachian State Invitational the end of January.