Women's Track Sends Five to NCAA Championships
6/9/2009 12:00:00 AM
June 9, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -
Alabama Heads to NCAA Championships: The Alabama women's track and field team will head to the NCAA Championships being held in Fayetteville, Ark. The meet will begin on Wednesday, June 10 at John McDonnell Field. The first event for the Crimson Tide will be the high jump qualifying round on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Television and Live Results: CBS will be airing the NCAA Championships and are scheduled to go live from the track Friday, June 12, 6-9 p.m. CST on CBS College Sports as well as Saturday, June 13, 12-2 p.m. CST on CBS. There will be live streaming through NCAA.com and ArkansasRazorbacks.com. Live streaming will take place whenever CBS College Sports and CBS are not airing events live. Live results will be run by FlashResults and they will run live results through their site, flashresults.com, NCAA.com and it will be linked to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
Mideast Regional Recap: The Alabama women's team concluded its stay in Louisville, Ky. at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships with a 10th place finish along with four individuals moving on to the NCAA Championship along with Chealsea Taylor who had qualified provisionally in the heptathlon earlier in the season. The Crimson Tide qualified two athletes out of the high jump where true freshman Krystle Schade led the way with her fourth place finish in an exciting jump-off while Taylor earned an at-large bid after finishing eighth with a leap of 5-8 1/2. Kim Laing, the 2009 Drake Relays Champion, continued her stellar season in the 100 meter hurdles as she advanced to nationals with her third place finish and personal best time of 13.28 behind the number one hurdler in the nation, Michigan's Tiffany Ofili. Talaya Owens is making her second straight trip to the NCAA Championships in the 400 meter hurdles. After qualifying as an at-large in 2008, Owens took fourth with a time of 58.29 at regionals this season to make sure she made nationals.
All-Mideast Regional Honors: The Alabama women's track and field team earned nine All-Mideast Region accolades. The Crimson Tide had two ladies earn double honors. Chealsea Taylor earned the honors with her eighth place finish in the high jump and leading the 4x100 meter relay team to a season best time of 45.21 and fourth place finish. Freshman Audra Frimpong earned the honor as part of the relay squad, but also finished seventh in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 13.56. Toni Graham and Heather Matherson made up the other two legs of the 4x100 meter relay squad. Kim Laing earned her first All-Mideast Region honor with a third place finish in the 100 meter hurdles and time of 13.28. Freshman Krystle Schade also earned her first honor in the high jump with a fourth place finish after a jump off between four athletes to determine positions 3-6. Talaya Owens came away with the accolade after finishing fourth in the 400 meter hurdles running a time of 58.29.
SEC in the USTFCCCA Polls: Familiar faces will be at the NCAA Championships as five SEC teams are ranked in the top 25. LSU enters as the third ranked team in the nation while NCAA Indoor Champion Tennessee checks in at No. 5. SEC Champion Florida is ranked No. 14 while Arkansas and Auburn follow at No. 18 and No. 20, respectively, to round out the group. The Crimson Tide comes into the meet ranked as the No. 51 team in the country. There are 145 teams ranked in this year's USTFCCCA poll.
Alabama at the NCAA Championships: The Crimson Tide has finished as the runner-up at the NCAA Championships twice in consecutive years placing second in both 1986 and 1987. Alabama has had a total of 90 All-American performers with the last being Miruna Mataonu and Trish Bartholomew in 2008. The Crimson Tide has had 13 national champions with the last coming in 2005 with Beth Mallory in the discus.
Crimson Tide in the Top 25 in the Nation: Alabama will send a contingency of five athletes to compete in Fayetteville, Ark. with four of the five being ranked in the top 25 in the nation in their respective events. Krystle Schade is the only member of the Crimson Tide that is ranked in the top 10 coming in tied for eighth in the high jump after jumping 6-0 earlier this season. Chealsea Taylor is knocking on the door as she is tied for 12th in the high jump after clearing 5-11 1/4 and also comes in the meet with the 16th best heptathlon score of 5,406. Kim Laing holds the 17th fastest 100 meter hurdle time of 13.28 while Talaya Owens enters the meet with the 22nd fastest 400 meter hurdle time of 58.20. Rachel Robbs, a last minute qualifier due to someone else dropping out of the meet, comes into the meet ranked 27th in the heptathlon.
Players Mentioned
