Brad Millar Qualifies for NCAA Championships
5/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | TRACK AND FIELD
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Brad Millar qualified for the NCAA National Championships in the hammer throw on Saturday as the men’s and women’s track and field teams closed out the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships. He becomes the second Blue Demon thrower in as many years to earn a bid to the championships. Millar threw the hammer 63.16m to take fourth place out of 21 competitors. The top-five finishers from each regional automatically qualify for the NCAA National Championships, while the remaining portion of the field is made up of at-large bids based on the national best-performance list. Millar became the first male thrower since Carey Ryan to earn berth in the championships. Ryan placed sixth in the hammer throw in 2001 and was named an All-American. Winning this year’s regional was Walter Henning of LSU, who launched a throw of 70.56m. Alanna Kovacs earned seventh place in the javelin throw with season-best distance of 46.15m. Her previous personal record was set at the BIG EAST Conference Outdoor Championships with a distance of 44.61m. The women’s javelin throw was won by Kara Paterson of Purdue who recorded a distance of 58.56m. Kovacs now awaits the announcement of the at-large selections for the NCAA Championships in two weeks. Joe Strawder represented DePaul in the men’s triple jump. Earlier this year, he set a DePaul school record with leap of 15.18m. He fouled on all three attempts today. Arkansas’ Nikosinza Balumbu took the regional crown with a distance of 16.35m. Last season, javelin thrower Melissa Fraser became the first Blue Demon thrower to make it to the outdoor championships after taking third at the Mideast Regional. The NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships take place on June 10-13 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.