Melissa Fraser Enters NCAA National Championships
6/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | TRACK AND FIELD
CHICAGO Melissa Fraser of the DePaul women’s track and field team faces the nation’s top collegiate talent this week at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. The DePaul record-holding javelin thrower enters competition on Thursday at Drake Stadium.
Fraser joins the javelin throw preliminaries at 2:15 p.m. (CDT) with a national ranking of No. 25 and a season-best mark of 49.52m. The BIG EAST Champion punched her ticket to the NCAA National Championships with a third-place finish at the NCAA Mideast Regionals on May 31.
Purdue’s Kara Patterson holds the top seed in the women’s javelin throw with a distance of 61.56m. Twelve throwers from Thursday’s preliminaries advance to Saturday’s finals at 2:45 p.m.
Fraser, a freshman from Hillsburgh, Ontario, is the first DePaul student-athlete to compete at the NCAA Track and Field Championships since Erin Moffett ran the 10,000m race in 2004. Other Blue Demons at NCAA Championship meets include Carey Ryan in 2001, Chris Stafford in 1998 and National Champion Dave Dopek in 1995.
The 2008 NCAA National Championships bring more than 1,000 student-athletes to Drake Stadium with events running from Wednesday until Sunday. Both CBS College Sports Network and CBS Sports will provide select coverage of the meet. On Friday, CBS College Sports Network will broadcast live between 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (CDT). CBS Sports will feature events on Sunday from noon until 2 p.m.