The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Track & Field Begins NCAA East Preliminary Round Thursday
5/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
May 26, 2010
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Championship Central | Meet Schedule 
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The UAB track and field team will send five athletes to the NCAA Championship East Preliminary Round held Thursday-Saturday at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C.
Senior Timara McMillan, juniors Samantha Hamilton, Nora Mehl and Bianca Le'Blanc and sophomore Rhiannon Johns will represent the Blazers in Greensboro.
In addition to the East Preliminary, the West Preliminary Round hosted by the University of Texas in Austin will also take place May 27-29.
The preliminaries will serve as the first two rounds of competition for the NCAA Championships, narrowing the field of 48 in each event to 12 from each region.
The top 12 finishers in each preliminary event from each region advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore., at host Oregon's Hayward Field.
Conference USA champion Johns received a No. 13 seed in the 10,000-meter preliminaries with her league-leading mark of 34:40.30 at the Stanford Invitational on March 26. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada product also qualified for the 5,000-meter prelims with her personal-record time of 16:48.38 at the C-USA Championships.
Two-time C-USA champion Mehl earned a No. 19 seed in the high jump with her leap of 1.79m (5-10.50) at the Alabama Relays on March 27.
Both McMillan and Hamilton qualified for the first round of the 100-meter hurdles after personal record performances at the C-USA Championships. McMillan clocked a time of 13.69 to take fourth, while Hamilton finished close behind in fifth with a time of 13.78.
Le'Blanc qualified for the 800-meter after running 2:09.75 and garnering all-conference honors at the league championships.
UAB Schedule at the NCAA East Preliminary Round
Thursday, May 27
5 p.m. ET ... High Jump (Nora Mehl)
8 p.m. ET ... 800-meter first round (Bianca Le'Blanc)
9:15 p.m. ET ... 10,000-meter (Rhiannon Johns)
Friday, May 28
5 p.m. ET ... 100-meter hurdles first round (Timara McMillan, Samantha Hamilton)
6:45 p.m. ET ... 800-meter quarterfinal (TBD)
Saturday, May 29
7:20 p.m. ET ... 100-meter hurdles quarterfinal (TBD)
8:45 p.m. ET ... 5,000-meter (Rhiannon Johns)
