Feb. 15, 2008

KINGSTON, R.I. - The University of Richmond indoor track & field teams will compete in the 2008 Atlantic 10 Indoor Championships on Saturday at Mackal Field House on the Rhode Island campus. The A-10 will live stream the entire event, free of charge on CSTV's All-Access. The women's meet begins at 9 a.m., with the men at 3:15 p.m.

Coming of second-place finishes in both the 2007 Indoor and Outdoor Championships, the Spider women's team is looking for its second Indoor title since winning in 2002. The women took fourth in 2006.

Junior Jasmine Major leads the Spiders into the meet, ranking among the league's best sprinters, along with top marks in long jump and triple jump. Her converted 55-meter dash time of 7.18 ranks eighth, while her converted 55-meter hurdles time of 8.22 is the fifth-best in the A-10.

The local star and graduate of Hermitage High School posted a long jump mark of 18-1.00 to currently rank sixth in the conference and her triple jump mark of 36-9.50 is the A-10's fourth-best.

Also in the jumps, freshman X'auntasia Johnson owns the third-best performance in the triple jump - posting a mark of 37-5.00. She trails the A-10 leader -- Charlotte's Danielle Brown - by just 1.5 feet.

The Spiders also have a shot in big points in both the distance events and the throws as sophomore Amy Van Alstine and senior Kylee Schuler rank among the fastest in the mile and 5,000, respectively, while freshman Samella Koroma has placed herself amongst the league's best in the weight throw and shot put.

Van Alstine, who was named the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer at last season's A-10 Championships, is second to Charlotte's Aja Jackson in the mile. Both Jackson and Van Alstine posted their times recently at the Carolina Classic, with Van Alstine being clocked at 4:58.10 - less than two seconds behind Jackson.

Schuler also used the Carolina Classic to post the A-10's third-fastest 5,000-meter time of 17:54.99. Mary Bertram (18:20.10) and Shelby Faircloth (18:27.72) enter the A-10 Championships ranked in the top-15 of the 5,000, while Nicol Traynor (5:08.69) and Diana Filtz (5:09.03) are ranked in the mile's top-15.

With a mark of 50-1.75, Koroma is sixth in the conference in the weight throw and her mark of 38-11 is 12th in the shot put. But Koroma and four other Spiders dominate the shot put's top-15. Alicia Cayton (39-4.25) is ninth, Monica Howard and K'Lynn Robinson are tied for 10th (39-1.25) and Heather Roush is 15th (38-7.75).

Richmond's distance medley relay currently sits second in the A-10 (11:52.03), trailing La Salle by just over six seconds.

The men will see their best shot at individual champions in the distance events. Sophomore Matt Llano ranks fifth in the 5,000 (14:47.89) and senior Jonathan Molz is 10th in the mile (4:16.74). Molz also finds himself sixth in the 1,000 with a time of 2:29.58.

Sophomore Andrew Benford, who finished third in the 3,000 at last season's Indoor Championships, currently owns the league's fifth-fastest time in the event of 8:27.68 - nearly eight seconds faster than his time last year. He's also ranked 13th in the mile (4:18.92).

Jeff Strojny turned it on late and posted the league's seventh-fastest time in the 800 of 1:56.15 at the Liberty Quad meet in the team's last tune-up before Saturday.

The high jump kicks off the women's Championship at 9 a.m and the men's portion also begins with the high jump at 3:15 p.m. On the women's side, Charlotte is the defending champ, with the host Rhode Island Rams looking to defend their men's title.