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Blazers Ready To Compete At Outdoor Track and Field Championships
May 14, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The UAB track and field team will look to its experience as it heads to El Paso, Texas to compete in the Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 15-17 at Kidd Field on the campus of UTEP. UAB head coach Ray Stanfield said his squad will rely on the strength and experience of the upperclassmen to provide them a chance to win the league crown. "It's going to be a close team competition this year," Stanfield said. "We have seniors who have performed well in the past and we will count on them to come through again and score the bulk of the points for us." The Blazers have six athletes competing in this weekend's meet that have been named to previous all-conference outdoor teams or have qualified for the outdoor region meets in their career. Leading the way are seniors Whitney Mays and Elizabeth Ambrus. Mays will be running for her fourth all-conference honor and also be searching for her second-consecutive individual title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She is also schedule to compete in the 1500-meter run Ambrus will be attempting to capture her second individual title in the 10,000-meter run, where she holds a C-USA season-best time of 34:17.65 coming into the race. Ambrus will also compete in the 5,000-meter run along with Mays. Other previous athletes that have garnered all-conference accolades and will be competing this weekend include Genoah Collins and Alina Varpiotaite. Collins, who took home all-conference honors in 2004, will run in the 800-meter race and will compete in the Blazers' relay events. Varpiotaite, a 2007 all-conference honoree, will compete in the 1500-meter run and the relays.
Past outdoor regional qualifiers that will compete include Tara Colvin and Penny Shields. Shields, who has regionally qualified in the triple jump earlier this year, has the league's seventh longest-jump in the event this season. Samantha Hamilton, who also regionally qualified in the triple jump, has the tenth league's 10th-longest jump this season. Colvin enters the meet with the fourth fastest-time in the 400-meter race, as she goes after her first outdoor all-conference honor. The Blazers are schedule to compete in 15 events over the course of the three-day meet, which begins Thursday morning with the decathlon and heptathlon events and concludes Saturday evening with the 4x400-meter relays. Stanfield said he expects Rice, UTEP, Houston, Tulsa and UAB to have the best shot at winning the team title. "Our goal going into this meet is to place in the top three and perform well enough that we put ourselves in a position to take the title," Stanfield said. "We have some really good heats and lane assignments in the preliminaries, which is one advantage you look for in those races." Jacinta Scruggs is one of several freshmen who could make the difference for UAB this weekend. Stephanie Gammon is another freshman standout in the 10,000-meter run, where she has the third fastest time of the year. "We have some freshmen who are capable of stepping up and scoring points for us," Stanfield said. UAB finished tied for ninth last year at the outdoor championship with 45 points. Varpiotaite, Mays and Deborah Hawkins finished in the top three in their respective events to earn All C-USA honors. This will be the second time that UTEP has hosted the championship meet in three years. UAB tied for fifth place in 2006 scoring 74 points, while Ambrus won the 10,000-meter run title in El Paso. "They do a good job at putting the meet on," Stanfield said. "Most of the running events are at night so the sun won't be a factor." |
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