ACU qualifies 24 individuals, 4 relays

Wildcats to send strong contingent to Boston

Men's Entry List / Women's Entry List

ABILENE -- The ACU men's and women's track and field teams combined to qualify 24 individual athletes and four relays for the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championship meet.

The Wildcats have one more week to prepare for the meet, which is set for March 11-12 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

The ACU men have won three straight indoor titles and eight of the last nine, while the ACU women haven't won the indoor championship since the 2000 season.  The women's team from Lincoln (Mo.) is the defending indoor national champion.

The ACU men's team appears primed to win another national championship for a school that already has 51 track and field national championships to its credit.

The Wildcats qualified 13 individuals in eight events, as well as both the 4x400 and Distance Medley relay teams.  Both of those teams enter the meet with the best time in the nation.  The 4x400 relay team's best time is 3:10.57, which is more than one second better than St. Augustine's (N.C.), which enters the meet ranked No. 2 in the event with a time of 3:11.76.

ACU's Distance Medley Relay team also has the top time in the nation at 9:40.55, easily outdistancing Western State (Colo.), which checks in at No. 2 at 9:56.39.

In addition to their two top-ranked relays, the Wildcats have the top-ranked individual athlete in four events, including Lucky Hadebe in both the 800 meters (1:50.46) and the mile (4:05.56).  The other top-ranked individuals are reigning NCAA Division II cross country national champion Nicodemus Naiamadu in the 5000 meters (13:41.08) and senior Ben Washington in the triple jump (51-5.00).

Washington -- the 2003 indoor national champion in the triple jump -- is tied atop the triple jump list with teammate Vladyslav Gorbenko.  Junior Yevgen Pashchenko is second on the long jump list at 24-9.00 and third on the triple jump list at 51-2.25.  Pashchenko won the triple jump at both the 2004 indoor and outdoor championship meets.

Senior Bernard Manirakiza will be participating in his final meet as a Wildcat next week, but he won't be running in the event -- the 800 meters -- that he has won in each of the last two years at the indoor meet.  Manirakiza failed to post a qualifying time good enough to make the 800-meter field.  Instead, the seven-time national champion will try to defend his indoor national title in the mile (ranked No. 9 going in at 4:09.78) and run on the Distance Medley Relay.

On the women's side, ACU qualified 11 individual athletes in seven events, as well as both the 4x400 and Distance Medley relay teams.

The Wildcats' highest-ranking qualifier is sophomore pole vaulter Angie Aguilar, whose best vault this season -- 12 feet, 9.50 inches -- is good enough for third on the list.  Her husband, Cory Aguilar, qualified for the pole vault on the men's side, checking in at No. 4 with a vault of 16-10.00.

Also on the women's side, freshman Shawna-Kaye Thompson qualified for the meet in the 60 meters (14th at 7.71), 60-meter hurdles (ninth in 8.68) and the 200 meters (11th at 24.85).  She'll also run on the Wildcats' 4x400 relay team, which will enter the meet with the fifth-best time in the field at 3:48.22.

Olha Kryv'yak leads a contingent of ACU distance runners in the mile, checking in with the fourth-best time at 4:51.91.  Also qualified in the mile for ACU are Trina Cox (eighth at 4:54.98) and Adeh Mwamba (ninth at 4:55.65).  Freshman Denise Morgan (fifth at 2:12.50) and Mwamba (eighth at 2:13.52) are also qualified in the 800 meters.

Aguilar leads a contingent of three ACU athletes into the pole vault competition.  Aguilar is third, followed by seniors Val Gorter (fourth at 12-9.50) and Katie Eckley (eighth at 12-3.50).  The Wildcats' other qualifier is Brooklyn Hunt in the 400 meters (12th in 56.67).  She'll also run on the 4x400 relay, along with her sister, Jessica Hunt, and Keva Wilkin.  Jessica Hunt will also run in the 200 meters.