TLU Women's Track & Field starts NCAA DIII Championship competition today
5/27/2010 10:56:26 AM
Championship Site
BEREA, Ohio – Texas Lutheran pole vaulter Ligia Bolivar, long jumpers Briana Aiken and Devin Evans, and the Bulldogs' 4x100 meter relay team will be in action today (Thursday) at the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, contested at Baldwin-Wallace College.
Bolivar (Sugar Land/Travis) begins the competition for TLU with a noon central (1 p.m. eastern) start in the pole vault. The national champion and All-Americans for the pole vault will be decided today. The top eight finishers are awarded All-America status.
Aiken (Pflugerville/Pflugerville) and Evans (Houston/Hightower) compete at 2 p.m. central (3 p.m. eastern) in the long jump. The national champion and All-Americans for the long jump will be decided today.
TLU's 4x100 relay team of Sahara Bragner (Victoria Memorial), Evans, Julie Udoessien (Dallas/Liberty), and Shyra Walker (Cuero/Cuero) runs its preliminary heat at 2:45 p.m. central (3:45 p.m. eastern).
Live results, a live blog, event re-cap pages, a photo gallery, and YouTube interviews of championship winners can be found at http://www.bw.edu/athletics/10tracknationals/.
Bulldog fans can also find links to the national championship pages as well as photos and event re-caps at www.tlubulldogs.com.
Seven TLU student-athletes - Aiken, Bolivar, Bragner, Evans, Udoessien, Walker, and triple jumper Destiney Jones - are competing at the national championships.
Jones (Garland/Naaman Forest) and Aiken will compete Saturday in the triple jump (trials and finals), starting at 1:30 p.m. central (2:30 p.m. eastern).
If the 4x100 relay advances to the final, the team races in the championship final on noon Saturday.
Jones, a sophomore, has the third-best triple jump mark in the nation with a leap of 39 feet, 8.75 inches.
Aiken, a freshman, is tied for sixth in the long jump rankings with a mark of 19-2. Aiken is seeded 16th in the triple jump with a jump of 38-3.25.
TLU's 4x100 meter relay team was the final relay team to make the 4x100 field. The Bulldogs take the 15th-fastest qualification time, a time of 47.99 seconds, into the field of 15.
Bragner, Walker, and Evans are sophomores, and Udoessien is a freshman. Bragner, Walker, and Evans competed at the national meet in 2009 on the 4x100 meter relay team. The Bulldogs did not advance past the preliminary round last season.
Evans also will compete in the long jump. She is tied for ninth among this year's competitors with a jump of 19-0.75.
Bolivar, a freshman with a clearance of 12-2, is ranked 15th in the national field. The national championship field includes 20 pole vaulters.
The Texas Lutheran women’s track and field team, the 2010 American Southwest Conference Champion, is ranked 19th in the latest United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association poll for NCAA Division III.