|
Vanderbilt’s Schneble Earns NCAA At-Large Bid in 5,000 6/2/2004 Will Join Hahn as Commodore Participants at Nationals The stellar outdoor track season by Vanderbilt sophomore Erika Schneble will continue at least two more weeks. Schneble, the Commodore record holder and reigning Southeastern Conference champion at 5,000 meters, was awarded an at-large berth to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Tuesday afternoon. The national championships will be conducted next week at the University of Texas in Austin. “I’m very pleased for Erika, and excited that she is being rewarded for a great season,” Spivey said. “I’m also happy that she is not experiencing pain, so I’m hoping we get a good week of training in before the race.” Schneble will enter the NCAA Championships with a legitimate chance to become Vanderbilt’s first All-American distance runner in a decade. She owns the seventh fastest time among the 28 participants scheduled to race. Schneble will join Vanderbilt junior Josie Hahn at the national meet. Hahn, a two-time All-American, became the Commodores’ first NCAA regional winner last week by capturing the high jump in Baton Rouge. Hahn will also compete in the heptathlon. Schneble was awarded the berth following a gutty performance at the Mideast Regional Championships. Two weeks before the regional meet, Schneble sustained a foot injury in the final lap of her SEC Championships win. Running with the ailment, Schneble finished ninth overall in 16:52.15. In developing its list of 5,000-meter qualifiers, the NCAA only considered runners who ran at one of the four regional competitions. Providence senior Kim Smith enters the NCAA 5,000 meters as a prohibitive favorite, having won the East Regional title and owning the fastest time of 15:09.72. Notre Dame sophomore Molly Huddle, who won the Mideast Regional, has the second fastest qualifying mark, 15:32.55. Others in the top ten include Stanford junior Sara Bei, 15:36.21; Boston College senior Jennifer Kramer, 15:47.83; Colorado junior Renee Metiever, 15:49.08; Schneble, 16:08.18; Duke sophomore Clara Horowitz, 16:09.00; Belmont senior Christy Csorna, 16:13.71; and North Carolina State freshman Julia Lucas, 16:14.83. |
