The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
South Region Championships
Blazers Conclude NCAA Mideast Regional Championship
5/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
May 31, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. --- The UAB track and field team completed its final day of the 2008 NCAA Mideast Regional Championship Saturday with three individuals and one relay team competing at the John McDonnell Field on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
The Blazers concluded the meet with a 10th-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay. The squad of Jacinta Scruggs, Genoah Collins, Alina Varpiotaite and Tara Colvin recorded a time of 3:41.94 in the race.
Scruggs led off the race for the Blazers in lane two and made the first handoff to Collins towards the lead of the pack. She moved to the inside, but fell behind the leaders on the back straight away before handing the baton to Varpiotaite, who could not catch up to the front of the pack. She handed off to Colvin who finished the race for UAB.
Penny Shields and Samantha Hamilton both competed in Saturday's triple jump event and finished 18th and 20th respectively. Shields narrowly out distanced her teammate with a jump of 12.11 meters. Hamilton jumped 12.04 meters.
Whitney Mays, the other individual competing Saturday, posted an 11:18.65 time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She finished 15th overall in her fourth and final regional championship steeplechase event.
Three members of the Blazers team will have to wait until the conclusion of the other three regional championships to find out if they will get the chance to compete in the NCAA National Championship June 11-13 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Elizabeth Ambrus, who currently has the NCAA's 26th best time in the 10,000-meter run, was provisionally qualified in the event heading into the weekend's region championships. Varpiotaite and Scruggs finished in the top 12 of their respective events Friday, putting them into an at-large pool to participate in the national meet.
