May 25, 2006

NCAA Mideast Regional Championships Site

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Six Spartans will compete this weekend (May 26-27) at the NCAA Mideast Women's Track and Field Championships held at the Tom Black Track on the campus of Tennessee. The top-five finishers in the individual events automatically advance to the NCAA Championship meet June 7-10 on the campus of Sacramento State University.

Leading the way for MSU is senior and first-team All-Big Ten selection Taren James (Long Beach, Calif.). James, the Big Ten outdoor triple jump champion, enters the regional seeded eighth. She leapt a personal-best 12.82 meters (42-0 3/4) at the Spartan Invitational, and finished first at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships two weeks ago with a jump of 12.35 meters. She is also competing in the long jump after leaping a personal-best 6.15 meters at the Big Ten Championships to place second.

Sophomore Nicole Bush (Wyoming, Mich.), who qualified regionally in three events, will only run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the regional championships. She set a school record in the event and placed third at the Big Ten Championships with a time of 10:10.94, which is the third-fastest time of the region this season. Sophomore Emily Adama (Newaygo, Mich.) will also run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase after running a regional-qualifying time of 10:47.85 at the Hillsdale Relays in late April.

Senior Aimee Keenan (Bellmont, Mich.) will run in the 800 meters, while junior Michelle Rafferty (Carmel, Ind.) will compete in the 5,000 meters. In sprints, sophomore Jackie Walton (Darien, Ill.), who ran a season-best time of 13.85 at the Big Ten Championships, will run in the 100-meter hurdles.

In 2003, the NCAA established a championship track meet to be held after the conference meets for athletes to qualify for the Division I national championship meet. The country was divided into four regions (East, Mideast, Midwest and West) with one regional championship meet to be held at a host school from each region. Regional qualifying standards were established, and any athlete who meets the standard for his or her event is automatically entered in the regional meet. In addition to the athletes who meet the regional standard, conference champions are automatically entered as well, even if the athlete has not met the regional-qualifying mark.

After all of the automatic qualifiers, based on their finish at each regional meet, have been identified, the committee will place the next seven finishers, based on regional finish, in each event into the national at-large pool. The at-large athletes are then ranked in order of their best performance of the year, including the regional meet, and the committee will begin filling the remaining open spots from the top of the at-large list until the maximum number of 544 competitors is reached.

The NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet has established a limit of 544 student-athletes from each gender to be invited to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Athletes who do not compete at a regional meet, regardless of where their season-best performance would rank on the at-large list, are not eligible to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The only exceptions are for competitors in the decathlon (men), heptathlon (women) and 10,000 meters (men and women), because those events are not contested during the regional championship meet. The 10,000, decathlon and heptathlon use an automatic and provisional qualifying system, based solely on the athlete's best performance of the season.

The regional championships are all team-scored meets, with the scoring in each event breaking down as follows - first, 10 points; second, eight points; third, six points; fourth, five points; fifth, four points; sixth, three points; seventh, two points and eighth, one point. At the conclusion of the meet next Saturday night, the teams with the top two points totals will be recognized.

The 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships will be held June 7-10 on the campus of Sacramento State University.