TicketsMay 26, 2010
2010 NCAA East Region Participants -MEN
2010 NCAA East Region Participants - WOMEN
CINCINNATI- Throughout its grueling two months of competition, the University of Cincinnati men's and women's outdoor track and field teams have trained and competed for the chance to compete in the NCAA Championships. Beginning on Thursday, May 27, that dream will become a reality for 13 student-athletes, as they travel to Greensboro, N.C., to compete in the 2010 NCAA East Regional Championships. The event will be hosted by North Carolina A&T State University, and run on the Irwin Bell Track.
The Bearcats have 11 athletes on the men's team competing in nine events, while the women's team will have two athletes competing in the pole vault.
Representing UC on the men's side will be Troy Cooper, Antione Drakeford, Eric Finan, Brandon Fitch, Ethan Freet, Rick King, Chris Littleton, Maurice Norman, Terrance Somerville, Chase VanCura, and Brian Zimmerman.
Drakeford will be competing in the 400m and 4x400, and is one of three athletes who will be competing in multiple events. A season ago, Drakeford notched a sixth-place finish in the 400m dash at the NCAA East Regionals, registering a time of 46.12. The senior from Columbus began the season injured, and made his season debut at the All-Ohio Championships, winning the 400m in 46.94. The momentum continued into the BIG EAST Championships, where Drakeford became a two-time BIG EAST Champion in the 400m, winning in 46.31. Drakeford is seeded 12th in the 400m.
Other multiple event participants are juniors Troy Cooper and Chris Littleton. Both will be competing in the shot put and discus. Cooper will be making his second appearance at the NCAAs, where he competed in the shot put a season ago, while this will be Littleton's first appearance.
Sophomore Brian Zimmerman will compete in the javelin, where he enters the NCAA First and Second Rounds with the No. 4 seed, UC's highest seed. Zimmerman broke his own school record this season at the BIG EAST Championships in the javelin, with a first-place throw of 227' 10''.
Rounding out the field for the Bearcats are seniors Fitch (high jump) and King (3,000 steeple), junior VanCura (4x400), sophomores Finan (5,000m) and Somerville (110 hurdles), and freshmen Freet and Norman, both competing on the 4x400 relay team.
On the women's side, sophomore Michelle Eby and senior Kayla Dunn will be participating in the pole vault. This marks the second consecutive season that Eby has made the NCAA Regional in the pole vault, where she finished 24th a season ago. She notched a first-place finish at the All-Ohio Championships earlier this season with a vault of 12' 07-1/2'', and at the BIG EAST Championships recorded a sixth-place finish with a vault of 11'09-3/4''. Dunn, who finished fourth at the BIG EAST Championships with a vault of 12' 01-1/2'', will be making her first appearance.
Sophomore Kathy Klump, who set a school record in the preliminaries of the 800m at the BIG EAST Championships, registering a time of 2:09.32, qualified in the 800m, but will be unable to compete due to illness.
The top 12 finishers in each event at the East and West Regional Rounds then move on to the NCAA Championships, which are hosted by the University of Oregon from June 9-12. The field for the Regional Round was determined based on times/marks recorded throughout the season with the top 48 athletes in each event in both the East and West regions qualifying for the opening round of the NCAA Championships.