Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Queens track stars headline national meet

More to come on this soon, but if you want to see some incredible racing competition up close and personal this month without having to stray far from home...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.- With this year’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships being held in Charlotte May 27-29, Queens University of Charlotte is hoping for the same kind of success its has realized elsewhere for the past two years. The Royals, who boast four NCAA individual national champions over the last two years, return defending 10,000-meter champion Tanya Zeferjahn (Hesperia, Calif., Hesperia High School) and defending 1,500-meter champion Michael Crouch (Yucca Valley, Calif., Yucca Valley).

Zeferjahn leads the nation by nearly 30-seconds and barely missed breaking the 23-year old NCAA DII 10k record last weekend with a 33:09.47 which ranks her as the fourth fastest collegian in all divisions. Zeferjahn is also ranked No. 2 in the nation in the 5,000-meters as well as 5th in the 1500-meters.

Teammate Meagan Nedlo (Mt. Pleasant, TX, Pittsburg, HS) is currently ranked third in the 10k and ninth in the 5k with three teammates provisionally qualified for the championships. Maraya Slatter (Benson, N.C., West Johnston), provisionally qualified in both the 800- and 1500-meters, and Holly Annas (Granite Falls, N.C., South Caldwell) and Jessica Neville (Cold Spring, N.Y., Haldane) in the 10k look to make Queens’ largest and most competitive showing ever at the national championships. Queens women’s track team is currently ranked 14th in the NCAA Division II team rankings

Two-time NCAA national champion Crouch is back to full health and is currently ranked No. 2 in the 5,000-meters. Joining him at the championships looks to be NCAA indoor 800-meter runner-up Nelson Mwangi (Kenya, Nairobi School) and 1500-meter runner Simon Stuetzel (Meinborn, Germany).

The three-day championships will be hosted at Irwin-Belk track on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University.

The Royals are offering an NCAA ticket package as part of their fundraising campaign, Alter-G. The package also includes a ticket to the NCAA Championships Banquet, an autographed copy of coach Scott Simmons’ book “Take The Lead” and a UCS (official supplier of NCAA Championships) NCAA National Track & Field Championships backpack. Details can be found by clicking here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Specifically - The Division II Championship

concerned white man said...

do the tickets come with a kevlar vest, might be hard to sell anything that has to do with going to the campus of johnson c smith, it is saver to take a nightime stroll through the ghettos of kabul afghanistan than to test your luck in this part of town!

Meagan Nedlo said...

the queens team works out there every week and so far no one has been violated in any way. if a group of scrawny college distance runners can make it i'm pretty sure you'll be ok.

Anonymous said...

I volunteer coach for a youth track club at JCSU and regularly run home after the sun has set on Summit Ave (where the track is). I have never felt uncomfortable or at risk as single female runner in that area. I would hope that people would feel safe on a college campus.

Anonymous said...

That was Caitlin who posted the comment above.