Ohio is sending five of its top athletes to Greensboro, N.C., for the three-day NCAA East Regional track meet, which begins today and continues through Saturday.
Hosted by North Carolina A&T, the meet will feature about 2,500 competitors, with the 12 top finishers in each event advancing to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Two throwers and three distance runners comprise the five Bobcats - all seniors - who will attend.
Bahiyjaui Allen and Emily Amendola will compete in the shot put and hammer throw, respectively. The shot put will start at 3 p.m. today, and the hammer throw will commence at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
Allen ranked fourth in the Mid-American Conference in the shot put.
The runners, all members of Ohio's cross country team, are Annie Beecham, Jenielle Hunt and Kari Summers.
Beecham will participate in both the 10,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs. The 10,000 is scheduled for 9:15 tonight, and the 5,000 will begin at 8:45 p.m. Saturday.
Summers, who competed with Beecham all season, will also run in the 10,000. That leaves Hunt to run in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 9:10 p.m. tomorrow.
The NCAA Regional qualifier is one step further than I got last year
Hunt said. Although I am pretty nostalgic for this to potentially be my last collegiate race I'm glad to be running my favorite event for it.
Hunt owns the school record for the steeplechase with a time of 10 minutes, 39.77 seconds, which she accomplished at the Stanford Invitational in March.
The North Carolina weather could be a concern, especially for the distance runners.
Hunt said the heat this week in Athens has actually been a blessing in disguise because it resembles what the team will probably encounter this weekend.
The forecast in Greensboro predicts rain for all three days. It's expected to be warmest today and tomorrow - the days of the 10,000 and steeplechase.
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Sports
Mark Emery
