 |
 Junior Raquel Ramseur provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday at Notre Dame. |
 |
March 4, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. - Western Carolina junior sprinter Raquel Ramseur provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday afternoon at the Alex Wilson Invitational held at the Loftus Sports Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
Placing second overall in the women's 400-meter dash, Ramseur set a WCU school-record with a time of 54.31. The Charlotte, N.C., native had previously set the school benchmark earlier this season, running 54.53 at the Akron Indoor Open back on Feb. 2-3.
A total of three meet records were broken and 51 NCAA qualifying marks established on the second day of competition in one of the nation's premier "last chance" meets before next weekend's NCAA Indoor Championships. All told, four meet records and a combined 83 NCAA qualifying performances were posted over its two days of action.
For the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, both automatic and provisional qualifying standards are set in the absence of regional competitions as are held during the outdoor season. Individuals eclipsing the higher of the two standards are automatically invited to the NCAA meet. Those which met the provisional marks must wait to see the total number of entries per each event, with "at large" berths granted to individuals based upon performance.
According to statistics kept by TrackShark.com, Ramseur's time ranks 40th in the nation, just over two seconds off the automatic qualifying time of 52.20, and just over three seconds behind the top-time turned in this season by South Carolina junior Natasha Hastings (51.38) back on Feb. 24. In addition to Hastings, only three other individuals have automatically qualified.
Ramseur, who was the indoor 400-meter champion and also a member of WCU's 4x400-meter relay championship squad this season, must wait until selection late Monday evening to find out whether or not she will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA Championship Meet, which will be held March 9-10.
