MIAMI (May 23, 2018) – Five FIU track and field student-athletes are gearing up and getting ready to head north up Interstate-75 this week to take part in the NCAA Division I East Regional Track and Field Preliminary at the University of South Florida Track and Field Stadium in Tampa. The meet will be held May 24-26, with the qualifiers from each event advancing to the NCAA Championships that will take place at the University of Oregon's historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, June 6-9.
Coming off last year's record-setting seven competitors qualifying for the NCAA East preliminaries, this year's five qualifiers include: juniors
Clarissa Cutliff (Orlando, Florida/Edgewater) and
Kenflore Atilus (Naples, Florida/Naples) in the high jump,
Asha James (Canaan, Tobago) in the javelin, and
Terrisa Russell (Fort Lauderdale, Florida/South Broward) and
Gabrielle Rains (Sherwood Park, Alberta) in the discus. In addition, Russell will also compete in the hammer throw.
Fans can follow all the action for the three-day event, via USF's information site by
clicking here.
The following is the
REVISED schedule of events for the Panthers' participants
(schedule is tentative and may change due to inclement weather).
Thursday, May 24 –
Asha James, javelin, 1:30 p.m.;
Clarissa Cutliff and
Kenflore Atilus, high jump, 2 p.m.
Friday, May 25 –
Gabrielle Rains and
Terrisa Russell, discus, 1:15 p.m.
Saturday, May 26 –
Terrisa Russell, hammer throw, 8:45 a.m.
Fans who cannot make it to Tampa can watch all the action by clicking the link for live web streaming coverage (available to FloTrack Pro subscribers) below. A detailed event schedule can also be found below.
FIUSports.com had an opportunity to talk with Head Coach
Ryan Heberling about this week's NCAA East Regional.
Click here to see the complete interview.
2018 NCAA EAST REGIONAL PRELIMS INFORMATION
- Thursday, May 24-Saturday, May 26; University of South Florida, USF Track and Field Stadium.
- USF Track and Field Stadium
, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, Florida 33620.
Click here for directions.
-
Click here for complete
REVISED NCAA Division I East Regional schedule of events (PDF).
- Click the following links for daily live results:
Thursday | Friday | Saturday
-
Click here for live web streaming (subscription required).
-
Click here to purchase tickets.
Cutliff, the three-time defending Conference USA high jump champion, and No. 3 seed, advances to her third-straight NCAA East Regional and looks to advance to the NCAA Championships for the second-consecutive season. Cutliff earned Second-Team All-America honors at the 2017 NCAA Championships. She won the 2018 C-USA title with a mark of 1.84m, just shy of her own school record of 1.85m set at the University of Miami Hurricane Collegiate Invitational on April 14. Cutliff has been dominant in the event this season, having finished on the top of the podium in all five meets she has competed in during the outdoor campaign. Her conference championship was also Cutliff's fifth-straight C-USA high jump title combining both indoor and outdoor.
Joining Cutliff in the high jump is Atilus who will be making her first NCAA Regional appearance. Atilus qualified for the preliminaries with a jump of 1.77m at the 2018 Conference USA Championships, in Houston, Texas. Atilus is seeded No. 25.
Rains and Russell will represent the Panthers in the discus, Rains is seeded No. 29 and Russell is seeded No. 33. Rains won her first C-USA Championship on May 12, with a throw of 51.59m, however, it was her distance of 51.91m at the University of Miami Hurricane Twilight Invitational on April 14, that qualified her for the preliminaries.
Russell posted a top-10 finish in the discus at the C-USA Championships with a throw of 48.86m. She qualified for the NCAA East Regionals with a throw of 51.37m on April 14, at the University of Miami. This marks Russell's second appearance in the regionals in the discus.
Russell will also take part, for the first time in the preliminaries, in the hammer throw. The reigning C-USA champion, Russell qualified – and is seeded 12
th for the regionals – with a school-record throw of 62.48m at the conference championships in Houston.
James, a former women's soccer player at FIU, makes her first appearance in the NCAA's, seeded 31
st in the javelin. She qualified for the regionals with a throw of 47.34m, while taking second in the C-USA championships on May 13.
#####
Fans are encouraged to follow the team on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUTrackXC) for all the latest FIU Track and Cross Country news.
Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
