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Relay Team, Two Individuals Qualify for Regionals
March 25, 2006
AUSTIN - The Texas State men's 4x400 meter relay team along with Katya Kostetskaya in the 400 meter hurdles and hammer competitor Robert Melin all qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regionals with performances at the Texas Invitational held Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Competing in her first hurdle event of the spring, Kostetskaya placed second in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 58.63. Last year as a freshman, Kostetskaya advanced to the NCAA Finals in the event. Courtney Fischer was fourth in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.49. The qualifying time in the event is 1:00.82. Melin qualified for regionals in the hammer throw with a final mark of 58.68 meters (192-06) and shattered the school record by 25 feet. He finished second in the event on Saturday. Sarah Stultz won the women's hammer throw with a mark of 51.61 meters (169-04). She will need a throw of 54.15 meters to qualify for regionals. The men's 4x400 team qualified for the regional with a second-place time of 3:09.91. The Bobcats' three other relay teams also came within fractions of a second in also setting qualifying marks for May's regional to be run on the same track. The women's 4x100 meter team clocked a time of 46.47, just off the regional-qualifying time of 45.70. The men's 4x100 team had a time of 40.97, just shy of the 40.66 time needed to qualify. Also, the women's 4x400 team will look to shave a couple of seconds off its time of 3:44.37 during a busy April as it vies for a regional-qualifying time of 3:42.00. Texas State did have two other athletes win individual titles Saturday.
Chris Demerson won the men's long jump with a leap of 7.24 meters (23-09), but fell shy of the regional-qualifying mark of 7.34 meters. Jacque Iwuchukwu's triple jump of 12.14 meters (39-10) was also a first-place performance. Both in the men's and women's pole vault, Texas State athletes fell one progression shy of regional marks. On the men's side Eric Williams had a vault of 4.90 meters (16-00.75) but could not convert at 5.05 meters, the regional-qualifying mark, and he settled for third. Women's vaulter Britni Lawrence cleared 3.65 meters (11-11.75) but finished in a tie for second after not converting at 3.80 meters. Texas State' Rebekah Vickers also cleared 3.65 meters. Texas State took over 60 athletes to Saturday's invitational which included teams from Texas, Texas A&M, Texas-San Antonio, Texas-Corpus Christi and Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Bobcats are back in action next Saturday at the Rice Bayou Classic. |
