May 3, 2008

OXFORD, Miss. --- Tara Colvin and Jacinta Scruggs of the UAB track and field team each qualified in their respective events for the regional meet at the Ole Miss Invitational, the final meet before the league championship.

The final meet of the season was used largely in part to finalize the team's performance headed into the Conference USA Outdoor Championship May 15-17 in El Paso, Texas.

"It was a really good tune up for the conference meet," assistant coach Kurt Thomas said. "Everyone was participating in the events that they will be racing in and it was good to get that one last meet in before then."

Scruggs regionally qualified in the 400-meter hurdle event and placed third with a time of 1:00.44.

Colvin posted a time of 54.57 in the 400-meter dash to qualify for the regional meet. She placed seventh in the event.

Alina Varpiotaite set a school record and placed fourth in the 1,500-meter run. The junior mid-distance runner's time of 4:32.91 broke Lori Ursey's mark of 4:34.93 set in 1997.

The 4x100-meter relay team posted a season-best time of 46.95. Samantha Hamilton, Katrina Harrell, Erika Russ and Scruggs combined to place fifth in the event.

The Blazers had three top-10 finishers in the 800-meter dash. Varpiotaite led the way with a fourth-place finish, racing to a 2:16.66 finish. Whitney Mays claimed seventh (2:19.03), while Kendel Hood finished ninth (2:21.22). Katie Horton came in 11th (2:21.47) to round out the Blazers participants in the event.

Penny Shields jumped to a 12.30 mark (40-04.25) in the triple jump to place sixth. The mark was second regional qualifying distance for Shields this season. The 4x400-meter 'A' relay team finished third and ran a time of 3:48.03.

Russ claimed a seventh-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a 14.21 time. Elizabeth Hilligoss, running for the first time this outdoor season, placed fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:26.26.

Katryce Sykes placed 10th and ran a personal-best time of 1:03.43 in the 400-meter hurdles.