Twenty Mid-American Conference athletes automatically qualified for the national championship meet after the Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Regional Championships were completed Saturday.
The top-five athletes in each event and the top-three relay team finishers qualified automatically. Thirteen women and seven men automatically qualified from the MAC. Kent State will see five of its athletes to Nationals and Central Michigan will see four of its athletes. Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Miami, and Ohio will also see athletes going to Nationals.
Athletes who finish sixth through eighth in individual events and relay teams finishing fourth through sixth are put in an at-large pool, in which their season-best marks are used to determine the rest of the athletes qualifying for the national meet. Those athletes will be announced later in the week.
The NCAA Track and Field Championships are set to take place June 9-11 at Sacramento State.
RedHawk baseball continues success.
The Miami baseball team (44-16) will travel to Austin, Texas for Regionals, after beating Central Michigan (42-18) 10-6 in the final game at Miami for the Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament Championship and automatic NCAA tournament bid.
The RedHawks also captured the regular-season MAC Championship. Moving through the MAC tournament as the top-seed, Miami beat Western Michigan 9-5 Thursday, but losing 5-0 to Central Michigan kept Miami one loss away from elimination on Friday. Saving themselves, the RedHawks beat Ball State 9-3 Friday and Central Michigan 5-2 Saturday to force the second championship game, which they won 10-6 later that day.
Miami won its third MAC Tournament title and first since 2000. Five of Miami's players earned All-MAC tournament honors with senior Paul Frietch earning MVP honors.
Needing just one win to tie the school-record 45 wins, set in 1977, Miami moves into the double-elimination Regional as the No. 3 seed and will face second-seeded Arkansas (37-20) Friday for the first game. The RedHawks will face either Quinnipiac or Texas in the second game Saturday.
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Leslie Heck
