Long Beach State University Athletics
49ers Headed to Regionals
5/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
|
49ers Headed to Regionals with Sites Set on Sacramento
LONG BEACH, CA-- Long Beach State Track and Field will send 20 athletes to the University of Oregon and Eugene, OR to compete in the NCAA Regionals on May 25 and 26 with a chance to go onto the National Champinships in Sacramento starting on June 6. Athletes have to finish in the top-five to head to nationals, with a select group of at-large bids also at stake. Big West Track Athlete of the Year, Brent Gray along with Jessica Branker, will compete in two individual races (the 100 and 200-meter) and be part of the another relay team, with Gray running the 4x400m race as two-time defending conference champions, and Branker as a member of the 4x100m team. Ezra Kwong will be competing in three events as just the second 49er athlete since the regionals started in 2003 to do so (shot put, hammer and discus). Big West Freshman of the Year, Alex Goldberg (400m and 4x400m), Robert Jennings (discus, hammer) and Jennifer Onyeagbako (hammer, discus) will be in two a piece. Gray is LBSU's best chance at a national bid, ranking second and third respetively, in the 100 and 200-meter races in the West, while ranking in the top-20 overall in both. Gray is the school-record holder in both events and is looking to become the first 49er sprinter at Nationals, since Lewis Young in 1999. Jennifer Onyeagbako also has a strong chance, ranking sixth regionally in the discus and ninth overall. Six athletes have previous experience at the regional meet. School-record holder, senior and previous two-time Big West Champion, Kim Heinz, will be making her third appearance, ranking fifth in the West and 18th overall. She competed at the NCAAs last year, after ranking 26th overall and finishing fourth at the NCAA Regional. 2007 Big West Champion, Alex Shaw, will return for the second-straight year and ranks eighth in the region and 27th nationally in the javelin.With Tyson Gray going on the men's side, LBSU has sent at least one javelin thrower to each regional meet, and 15 overall, with Doug Lefler (1st-2004), Ami Goldhammer (2004) and Heinz (2006) each being named all-region. Jennings has competed in four events over two regionals previously, and ranks 23rd nationally in the discus and is in the top-20 overall in both of events. Junior Jill Reynolds is entering her second-straight regional, after missing out of the 2005 meet with an ankle injury. Reynolds ranks 14th in the region and 23rd overall. Kwong returns after redshirting 2006, competing in the 2005 shot and discus regionals. He has the 43rd-best shot put nationally. Sampson, an All-Region performer in the shot put in 2006 and a qualifier in 2005, enters the meet in a new category, the discus, where he is 31st regionally. Alex Freitas, the fastest freshman 800m runner in the West and fourth-fastest in the county, will not compete due to injury. |
