May 23, 2007

McNeese State will enter this week's NCAA mideast regional track and field meet with three athletes ranked among the top 10 in their events.

The Cowboys and the Cowgirls will begin competition on Friday on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia and the meet will run through Saturday.

Scheduled to compete for the Cowboys are Brad Gebauer in the pole vault, Marcus Brown in the shot put, John Jamail and Jan Bicanic in the shot put and Chris Hill and John Walledom in the javelin.

Cowgirls who have qualified for the meet are Lindsay Brooks in the high jump, Katarina Busljeta in the discus, Stephanie Gilbert in the hammer and Laken Mock in the javelin.

The men's pole vault and long jump and the women's javelin and high jump are scheduled for Friday while the women's hammer and discus and men's shot put and javelin are slated for Saturday.

Gebauer, Hill and Brooks go in as the top ranked McNeese athletes in the region.

Gebauer with his 18-0 3/4 school record best is ranked No. 1 in the pole vault while Hill is ranked No. 2 in the javelin at a school record 237-4 and Brooks is ranked eighth in the women's high jump at her school record best of 5-10 3/4.

Other rankings for the Cowboys are Brown at 19th in the long jump (24-9 1/4), Jamail 24th in the shot put (55-8 1/4), Bicanic 27th in the shot put (55-6 1/2) and Walledom 16th in the javelin (208-7).

For the Cowgirls, Busljeta is 17th in the discus (162-8), Gilbert is 18th in the hammer (183-6) and Mock is 15th in the javelin (146-9).

Athletes have to finish in the top five at regionals to secure a spot in the national finals which will run June 6-9 in Sacramento, CA.

In the past week Gebauer has been the only McNeese athlete to participate in a meet. He was invited to a pole vault competition at the Olympic training facility in San Diego last week and went 17-8. Former McNeese coach Russ Buller won the event at 18-9.

Gebauer had sustained a slight ham string pull at the Southland Conference championship meet and was using the training center competition as a test.

He's expected to have to come into the pole vault event at the regionals at a lower height than usual just to get a mark on the boards. He usually doesn't attempt a vault until the bar is at 17 feet.