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Summers and Belt Earn Automatic Bids to National Championships on Day One of Mideast Regional
May 29, 2009
Complete Results LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville men's and women's track and field teams earned three automatic bids to the NCAA Championships and advanced another to Saturday's finals on day one of the 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional held at Cardinal Park. The Cardinal men tallied 17 points and are tied for second heading into the final day with Mississippi. No. 6 Arkansas is the leader with 28 points. For the women, no. 16 Arkansas tallied 20 points for the lead, followed by Southern Illinois in second with 17 points. Indiana and Kentucky are tied for third place with 13 points. "It was a great day at the track for the University of Louisville program," said U of L head coach Ron Mann. "We have a regional champion in the women's discuss. Belt has advanced in both the high jump and the long jump. Hnat finished sixth in the shot put, and hopefully will receive an at-large bid to the national championship." The Cardinal women were led by junior Jere' Summers who won the Mideast Regional title in the discus with a throw of 186-05 (56.81m). It was the second best throw in school history and her top mark of the season. With the win, Summers earned her first ever bid to the national championships in the discus after advancing in the hammer throw and shot put a year ago. The Oakland, Calif. native entered the competition with the seventh best throw in the region. "Honestly, I did not feel good but after today there is a big sigh of relief," said Summers. "I am a little nervous about the championships. Last year I fouled out. I had some far throws that were right outside of the scepter."
Summers redeemed herself after finishing 16th in the hammer throw with a toss of 181-07 (55.35m). She was ranked third regionally in the event, but fouled on her second attempt and failed to make it out of the prelims. Junior Tarah McKay qualified for Saturday's final in the 1,500-meter run. McKay finished third overall with a time of 4:23.87, the third fastest in school history. In the hammer throw, sophomore D'Ana McCarty picked up a point after throwing a personal best 192-08 (58.74m) to finish eighth. Junior Lindsey Cook finished 11th with a distance of 185-02 (56.44m). Senior Heather Trimiew covered the 400-meter hurdle prelims in 59.42, finishing 11th out of 26 athletes. She missed qualifying for the finals by a narrow margin of .18 seconds. In the 100-meter dash prelims, junior Saravia Richardson placed 12th with a time of 11.69. Also competing was senior Seidre Forde and junior Rachel Gehret in the long jump. Forde finished 10th with a leap of 19-11.75 (6.09m), while Gehret placed 13th with a distance of 19-08 (5.99m). On the men's side, redshirt junior Tone Belt secured his spot in the NCAA Championships with a second place finish via a tiebreaker in the high jump. Belt cleared 7-03.25 (2.22m), earning a share of the Mideast Regional record. The Berkeley Springs, W. Va. native had the best jump of his season and finished just shy of a personal best. Belt earned his second national championship bid of the day in the long jump as he placed fourth with a leap of 25-04 (7.72m). This marked the third time Belt has qualified for the national championships in both events. "I felt great!" said Belt. "It is the best I have felt in quite a long time. Coming in, I expected to put up some good marks. While I was jumping, I kept feeling better and better and that helped me clear some really good marks. I feel great going into the National Championships." Freshman Wesley Smith and redshirt freshman Seon Powell also competed in the long jump. Smith finished eighth with a jump of 24-11.75 (7.61m) and Powell placed 22nd with a distance of 23-05.25 (7.14m). "I did not do so well at the BIG EAST Championships so I wanted to come here and do better," said Smith. "I am at home and my mother is here and my father is back from over seas to see me so I just wanted to come out and perform my best. I came in this year and now I have some good experience. I feel that going into my sophomore year that the sky is the limit." Redshirt junior Steven Hnat finished sixth with a toss of 59-06.75 (18.15m). Hnat who entered the weekend fourth in the region will now have to wait to see if he earns an at-large bid to the national championships. "I am a little disappointed," said Hnat. "I started off really slow but I did have a good last round though. I finished in sixth place, so hopefully that will give me a good chance to make it to the National championship. I will not know until Sunday night though. I am in the best shape I have ever been in my entire life. The coaching is right on and I can not complain about anything. I just did not quite get it done today and hopefully I can make it into the Championships." Rounding out the shot put for the Cards was sophomore Weston Banks who placed 13th out of 28 competitors overall with a throw of 55-04.75 (16.88m). He held the 16th best mark coming into the competition. Sophomore Phil Feinberg took 16th overall in the high jump as he cleared 6-08.75 (2.05m). "We feel really good about where we are at right now as well as meeting our goals for the year," said Mann. The final day of competition at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships will commence on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. ET. Following this weekend's meet, the next stop for the Cards will be in two weeks at the 2009 NCAA Championships on June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Ark. NCAA Mideast Regional - Louisville, Ky. Day One Results |
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