Three Frogs Earn At-Large Berths to NCAA Track Championships
5/31/2005 12:00:00 AM
May 31, 2005
The TCU Flyin' Frogs will be represented by three individuals along with the 4x400 meter relay team, as the NCAA announced the accepted list for the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Junior Donita Harmon will make her second trip to the NCAAs in the 200 meter dash. The Albuquerque, New Mexico product is ranked 21st among the 28 competitors vying for the 200 meter title with a season-best mark of 23.49 seconds. She earned an All-America certificate when she placed seventh at the 2002 national meet in Sacramento, logging times of 23.56, 23.42 and 23.50 seconds.
Sophomore Nathandra John earned a spot in the 400 meter dash with a time of 52.91 seconds, which ranks 18th among the 29 runners accepted into the NCAA meet. A product of St. Kitts, John is the only female TCU runner to eclipse the 53 seconds mark at the quartermile distance.
Sophomore MaKeatha Cooper will make a return trip to the NCAA meet in the 100 meter hurdles. Cooper, who hails from Grandview, Mo., ranks 18th among 28 hurdles in the event with a season-best time of 13.35 seconds. The TCU record-holder in the event, Cooper placed 25th at the national meet in Austin last year.
The 4x400 meter relay team of Marquita Davis, Deborah Jones, Harmon and John earned an automatic entry to the national meet on Saturday when they placed third at the Midwest Regional in Norman, Okla. with a school-record time of 3:31.49. That mark ranks seventh among the 19 teams accepted into the national meet. It is the first time that TCU has sent a women's 4x400 meter relay team to the national meet.
"I'm excited and the kids are excited they got in," said TCU's first year head coach Darryl Anderson. "It's a good thing for the kids and a good thing for TCU. I think we will do well at the meet and maybe we can get some All-Americans and score some points."
The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held June 8-11 at the Spanos Complex on the Sacramento State campus. Cooper and John will compete on Wednesday, while Harmon and the relay team will take the track for the first time on Thursday. The individual events have three rounds of competition, while the relay has a prelim and a final.
Players Mentioned
