May 26, 2006

Results

Austin, Texas - University of Northern Iowa sophomore Rachel Jansen (Orange City, Iowa) set another school record and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the shot put today, at the NCAA Midwest Regionals hosted by the University of Texas.

Jansen finished third in the shot with a school-record throw of 55'5 ½". With her third-place finish, Jansen also qualified for the NCAA championships, held June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif. The top five finishers in each individual event, and top three teams in each relay, automatically qualify for nationals.

Freshman Ryan Grenko (Iowa City, Iowa) advanced to the finals of tomorrow's 400 meters with an outstanding effort. He ran a career-best 46.83, finishing third in his heat of the preliminaries this evening, and is one of eight runners that will compete tomorrow night at 7:40 p.m. with the chance to advance to nationals.

In the pole vault, junior Jarno Kivioja (Porvoo, Finland) finished seventh with a season-best jump of 17'5". Sophomore Andre Poljanec (Ljubljana, Slovenia) finished 10th, clearing 17'1", and sophomore Raven Cepeda (Beloit, Wis.) tied for 17th with a personal best 16'7 ¼". Although they did not qualify for nationals automatically by finishing in the top five, both Kivioja and Poljanec will be among those considered for at-large entry into the NCAA national meet, based on their best heights from the outdoor season. Those at-large choices will be made on Monday, May 29.

In addition, Cepeda, the 2006 Missouri Valley Conference outdoor field athlete of the year, will compete at the NCAA Championships in the decathlon. The 7,371 points he scored at the MVC outdoor championships is tied for the 11th best total in the NCAA this year.

Other competitors for UNI today included senior Morgen Edwards (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), who finished 18th in the shot put with a throw of 46'0 ½". Senior Kyle Smith (Toronto, Ontario) placed seventh in his heat of the 800 meter preliminaries in a time of 1:50.33, but that was not good enough to advance to Saturday's finals. Freshman Greg Offerman (Charles City, Iowa) ran a time of 52.64 in his heat of the prelims of 400 meter hurdles, but did not advance to Saturday's finals.

The NCAA Midwest Regionals conclude tomorrow. In addition to Grenko in the 400, Jansen and Edwards will compete in both the hammer and discus; Marcin Kazubowski (Gdansk, Poland) in the javelin; Yuriy Litvinski (Sliven, Bulgaria) in the triple jump; and the men's 4x400 team of Mark Harris (Toronto, Canada), Smith, Tyler Mulder (Orange City, Iowa) and Grenko.