Track and Field automatically advances three to the NCAA National Championships

Brittany Riley, Bianca Stuart and Brenton Siemons will move on in their respective events.

May 31, 2008

By Shalae Patrick
www.siusalukis.com

Complete Results

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Southern Illinois track and field teams advanced three athletes to the 2008 NCAA National Championships, all on the first day, following competition at the Mideast Regional Meet.

Throwers Brittany Riley will toss the hammer and Brenton Siemons the shot put, while jumper Bianca Stuart will represent the Salukis in the long jump at Drake June 11-14.

Riley threw 202-06, good enough for second place in the region by three inches to qualify. The senior also threw 170-09 in the discus for fourth to advance in the event for the second-straight season. The top five in each individual events automatically qualify for nationals.

Stuart jumped 21-01.25 in the long jump for third place and her first automatic berth to nationals. Stuart and Riley combined for 19 team points to put the Salukis in 14th place. LSU took the title with 119, winning by 53 points.

Brenton Siemons made his way to Des Moines throwing 59-07.75 for second in the shot put. Siemons also threw the hammer on Saturday finishing 11th with a toss of 196-00. The men's 11 points put the men's team in 20th place. The LSU men won the team title with 88 points.

Other finishes for the women included a 19th-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles for Kendra Deck. She ran 1:00.94 in her first regional meet. Throwers Sasha Leeth (172-00) and Rickael Roach (164-06) finished 24th and 19th respectively in the hammer. Roach also picked up a 27th-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 45-10.

In the men's sprints, Stevie Warren finished 18th in the 100-meter dash in 10.40 and 25th in the 200 dash in 21.46. Teammate Sammy Biggs grabbed 18th in the 400 in 48.48. The duo along with Brandon Deloney and Justin C. Kozak finished 11th in the 4x100-meter relay in 40.65 missing finals. Deloney, Biggs and Warren also teamed with Antoine Jennings for the finals of the men's 4x400 on Saturday, finishing sixth in 3:08.03.

Jeff Schirmer, the lone distance runner at regionals finished 13th in the 5,000 in 14:38.49. Tommy Smith also picked up a 24th-place finish in the shot with a toss of 52-10.75.