May 26, 2009
Meet Schedule | Heat Sheets
EL PASO, Texas – The UTEP track and field teams will send 14 Miners to Norman, Okla., to compete in the 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional at the John Jacobs Field on the University of Oklahoma campus this Friday and Saturday.
Seven athletes will go into this weekend’s meet with 10 Top-10 performances in their respective events and three top rankings in the region. Seven men, six women and the men’s 1,600-meter relay will attempt to qualify for the June 10-13 NCAA Championships held in Fayetteville, Ark. The top five finishers in each event automatically qualify for nationals.
The women’s squad, ranked 15th in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll, is led by All-American Blessing Okagbare, who will see action in three events throughout the weekend. The Conference USA Championships Performer and High Scorer of the Meet awards winner goes into regionals with the nation’s best marks in the long and triple jumps. Additionally, the junior from Sapele, Nigeria, has the NCAA’s seventh-best time in the women’s 100-meter dash. Okagbare was the 2008 USTFCCCA Mountain Region Woman Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year.
Sophomore Dimitrios Fylladitakis will take the field as the top-ranked hammer thrower in the region with a season-best mark of 68.66m (225-03). Fylladitakis’ throw ranks fifth nationally. Hans Eriksson will join Fylladitakis in the competition on Saturday morning and will go in with the fifth-best toss in the Midwest Region.
All-American Alex van der Merwe will look to top last year’s runner-up performance at the regional meet. The four-time C-USA javelin champion’s mark of 70.86m (232-05) ranks 12th in the nation and second in the region. Anna Wessman will be representing UTEP in the women’s version of the javelin throw as the freshman also goes into the competition with the region’s second-best mark, 54.23m (177-11).
Sprinters Anderson Mutegi (200m), Curtis Kock (400m) and middle distance runner and All-American Dominic Tanui (800m) will double up in their respective individual events and as part of the men’s 1,600-meter relay scheduled to close out the meet. All-American Nicodemus Ng’etich, who was a regional qualifier in three distance events, will take the track in the men’s 5,000-meter run.
Rounding out competition for the women are Laura Macauley (javelin), Endurance Abinuwa (100m), Glady Nwaubani (100m) and Risper Kimaiyo (3,000m steeplechase).
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