Feb. 28, 2003

HOUSTON, Texas --- UAB's track and field team had an impressive showing Friday at the Conference USA Championship preliminaries. The Blazers set seven individual lifetime bests, and broke the school's record in the 800-meter dash.

Sophomore Theresa Smith finished first in her heat and advanced to the finals in the 60-meter hurdle prelims with a time of 8.64, a personal best and fourth fastest in school history. Smith also tied for eighth in the long jump prelims with a leap of 17-11.00, the fourth longest jump in UAB history for indoor and will advance to the finals. Smith finished the 60-meter dash prelims with a personal best of 7.69, fifth fastest of all-time at UAB, but five-one-hundredth of a second shy of making it to the finals.

"Theresa (Smith) again has solidified her spot on the team," said UAB coach Ray Stanfield. "Every week we give her more events to participate in and she keeps excelling."

Donna Pucke finished with the third fastest time in the 800-meter dash prelims with a time of 2:15.07, a personal best and a new school record for indoor.

"A highlight of the day of course was Donna Pucke breaking the school record in the 800-meter dash," said Stanfield. "She broke the record held by Lori Usrey who had a time of 2:16.14 (1999). This was a huge accomplishment for her."

Teammate Anna Parker finished 15th in the pentathlon with a lifetime best of 2333. Doella Miller finished the 400-meter dash prelims with a time of 58.88, a personal best and fifth fastest in school history. Sophomore Elace Minnifield finished the 400-meter dash prelims with a time of 58.17, a new personal best and fourth fastest in UAB history.

In the distance medley, UAB's team of Donna Pucke (1200), Elace Minnifield (400), Adrienne Duke (800), and Amanda Kara (mile) finished in eighth place overall with a time of 12:33.82, fourth fastest in school history.

Freshman Olivia Ross-Hurst of Herts, England sustained an injury during the high jump preliminaries Friday and will not compete in the rest of this weekend's competition.

Saturday finishes the competition at the C-USA Championships, where the Blazers still have several events to complete. Theresa Smith is set to race in the 60-meter hurdles and the long jump, while teammate Donna Pucke has the 800-meter dash finals. Junior Amanda Kara also has the finals of the mile run and the 3K. The shot put competition, mile relay and triple jump finals are also scheduled for Saturday.