Blue Demons Travel to Louisville for Cardinal Twilight
5/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | TRACK AND FIELD
CHICAGO The DePaul men’s and women’s track and field teams return to the track on Fri., May 15 for the Cardinal Twilight. The competition, hosted by Louisville, marks the last regular-season meet of the year and will be the last chance for the Blue Demons to earn and improve regional bids for the 2009 Mideast Regional Championships.
DePaul has 11 student-athletes entered in the competition which features teams from Cincinnati, Marquette, Louisville, Western Kentucky and nationally ranked Virginia Tech. Action begins at 9 a.m. (CST) with the throwing events, followed by the jumps at 10:45 a.m. Running event commence at 5 p.m.
Brad Millar leads the team with eight NCAA regional qualifying performances in the hammer throw. His season-best throw of 64.79m ranks 14th among all NCAA Division I student-athletes.
Joe Strawder logged a season-best triple jump of 15.18m earlier this season to tally a regional qualifying mark. Most recently, Strawder placed first in both the long jump and the triple jump at the Chicago Penultimate last weekend.
During the BIG EAST Conference Championship, Alanna Kovacs registered her first NCAA regional qualifying performance in the javelin. Competing in the event for just the second time during the season, the freshman launched a throw of 44.61m to earn fourth place. Kovacs scheduled to throw both the javelin and the discus on Friday morning.
Mary Cate Quiett will have one final opportunity to better her chance for a regional bid in the 800m. Quiett clocked a time of 2:09.19 during the league championships to meet the NCAA qualifying standard.
Stephanie Williams is slated to race in the 100m and 200m while Terah Cheatham takes on the 3,000m steeplechase. On the men’s side, Erik Felt and Patrick Smith will run the 400m hurdles, while Matthew Graham enters the 3,000m steeplechase field.
The 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional Championships will be hosted by Lousiville on May 29-30 and is one of four regional championship meets en route to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.