Courtney Earns NCAA Championship Berth
5/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
May 29, 2007
NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Page
MILWAUKEE - Marquette senior Michaela Courtney earned her second-straight trip to the NCAA Track & Field Outdoor Championships to compete in the 1,500m, Tuesday, as announced by the NCAA. Courtney, along with seven others who were announced as extra qualifiers, join the 20 automatic qualifiers to make up the field of 28 that will compete in Sacramento, Calif.
"She was seed 14th in the regional and finished sixth, coming on strong at the end of year," said head coach David Uhrich. "She is ready to run and she can definitely move up from her 12th-place seed time and hopefully move up into the top-five as she did last year."
The championship preliminaries, two heats of 14, will take place, Thursday, June 7, at 6:25 p.m. PST. The top four place finishers from each heat, along with the next four fastest times, will advance to the final, Saturday, June 9, at 11:22 a.m. The championship race will be broadcast live on CBS. Heat and lane assignments will be announced, Monday, June 4.
Courtney finished sixth at the NCAA Mid-East Regional, Saturday, one spot away from earning an automatic qualifying position in the championship. Her preliminary time of 4:19.06 at the regional did, however, earn her the third of eight extra-qualifying spots. Her time is tied for the 12th-fastest in the event.
In the 1,500m at the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Courtney set a school record (4:17.44) and finished fourth in her heat of the preliminaries before placing fifth (4:17.60) and earning All-American honors in the final.
This will be her third trip to the NCAA Track & Field Championships. In addition to her fifth-place finish last season, Courtney also qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2006, placing 16th in the mile. Only one other female student-athlete (Brianna Dahm in the 3,000m steeplechase in 2002, 2003 and 2005) in school history has participated in three NCAA Track & Field Championships.
Players Mentioned
