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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Competition at the 2012 East NCAA Track and Field Championships Preliminaries will get underway Thursday with five of the eight qualifying Central Michigan student-athletes in action, according to the brackets released by the NCAA Tuesday.
The top 12 finishers in each event will advance to the National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, beginning June 6. The same applies to the West region, with a total of 24 student-athletes qualifying for each event.
Live video and live stats will be available throughout the weekend via the website of the University of North Florida, host of the regional meet.
Junior Alex Rose will compete in the discus Thursday beginning at 1 p.m., the first of his two events this weekend. Rose, the MAC Champion in the discus, is seeded sixth overall and will compete in the third of three flights. Following a three-throw first round, the 16 student-athletes with the best marks will advance to a three-throw final.
Rose will also compete in the shot put at 5 p.m. on Saturday. He will compete in the first of four flights.
Senior hurdler Branden Post, the Mid-American Conference champion in the 400m hurdles, will be the first Chippewa to take the track. Post is scheduled to run in the third of six heats of the 400m hurdles, the first of which begins at 4:30 p.m.
The top three finishers in each of the six heats and the six next-fastest times – 24 total runners – will advance to the quarterfinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. Post is currently ranked 31st overall and seventh in his heat.
Freshman Milica Kulidzan, who set the school record in the javelin with a mark of 151-03 at the MAC Championships en route to a runner-up finish, is in the second flight of three in the javelin competition. The first flight is set to start at 4:30 p.m. Each competitor will take three throws, and the 16 student-athletes with the best marks will advance to the finals for three more throws.
After Post and the other men's 400m hurdlers clear the track, freshman Bridget Doughty and the women's 400m hurdlers will begin their six heats at 5 p.m. Doughty, who finished third at the MAC Championships, will compete in the second of six heats. The top three finishers in each heat and the nine next-fastest times will advance to the quarterfinals, which begin Friday at 7:45 p.m. Doughty is seeded 45th overall and eighth in her heat.
Senior Holly Anderson will conclude the first day for the Chippewas in the 10,000m run at 9:40 p.m. She is seeded 28th overall with her school-record time of 34:45.70 at the Stanford Invitational. The race will serve as the national semifinals, and the top 12 will advance to Des Moines.
Senior throwers Ryan McCullough and Kevin Mays will compete in the hammer throw Friday beginning at 10 a.m. McCullough, the MAC Champion in the hammer throw with a school-record mark of 210-07 and the Outstanding Field Performer, is seeded 10th overall and will compete in the third of three flights. Mays will compete in the second flight, and is seeded 21st after his career-best mark of 200-00 at the MAC Championships. The 16 best marks will advance to a three-throw final.
Senior multi-event student-athlete Josh Kettlewell will compete in the pole vault on Saturday at 11 a.m. Kettlewell is ranked 38th overall with his mark of 16-09.25 at the Lyle Bennett Open. He will compete in the second of two flights. The top 12 marks will advance to the National Championships.
Check back at the conclusion of each day for a recap and results.
