May 16, 2008

Championship Central

EL PASO, Texas --- The UAB track and field team completed the second day of events at the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship, qualifying seven athletes throughout several events on the final day of the three-day meet at Kidd Field.

Jacinta Scruggs headlined the Blazers' day, capturing a first-place finish in the 400-meter hurdle preliminaries. She finished with a mark of 1:00.14, which regionally qualified her for the event in the NCAA South Regional Championship.

The Blazers scored nine points on the second day, giving them a total of 16 points scored for the meet and putting them in 10th place overall in the standings.

Whitney Mays scored four points and missed becoming a four-time all-conference honoree in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She produced a time of 11:21.27 in the event to finish a fifth place finish.

Timara McMillan completed the second day of events and finished fifth in the heptathlon with 4,376 points. She started the day with 2821 points and scored 1,526 combined points in the long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter run. She scored five points with her fifth-place finish.

Erica Whitby cleared 1.60 meters in the high jump, giving UAB one point. She placed eighth in the event.

UAB qualified for the finals of six events to be held Saturday.

Tara Colvin put herself in the finals of the 400-meter dash, placing third with a career-best time of 53.39.

Genoah Collins' third-place finish in the 800-meter dash advanced her into the finals. She finished with a qualifying time of 2:11.03.

Alina Varpiotaite placed fifth (4:39.69) and Mays tenth (4:42.43) to move into the finals of the 1500-meter run.

Erika Russ turned in a career-best time of 13.97 in the 100-meter hurdles to proceed onto the finals. She crossed the finish line sixth.

Katrina Harrell was the final Blazer to advance from the preliminaries, sprinting to a 12.09 time in the 100-meter dash. She nearly qualified for the finals in a second event, finishing ninth with a time of 24.63 in the preliminaries of the 200-meter dash.

McMillan and Samantha Hamilton competed in the 100-meter hurdles, while Bianca LeBlanc and Kendel Hood took part in the 800-meter dash and Christina Chambers, Katryce Sykes and Tracy Rowan participated in the 400-meter hurdles.

Rice leads the meet with 65 points after two complete days of events. Memphis sits in second place with 46 points, followed by UTEP in third with 40.50 points, Tulsa in fourth scoring 31.50 points and rounding out the top five is SMU with 31 points scored.

The final day of the championship meet will take part Saturday. Live results can be found by visiting www.FlashResults.com/FlashTexas.