![Junior Jelena Jurlina will compete in two events at this weekend's NCAA Regional Track Championships. [File photo by Ned Dishman]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Ftulanegreenwave.com%2Fimages%2F2004%2F5%2F27%2Fjurlina030104.jpg&height=300&type=webp)
Five Tulane Individuals To Compete at NCAA Track Regional
May 27, 2004 | Track & Field
May 27, 2004
BATON ROUGE, La. - Five individuals from the Tulane University women's track team will compete at the 2004 NCAA Mideast Regional Championships at Bernie Moore Stadium on the campus of LSU. Juniors Jelena Jurlina, Helmi Leppanen and Lissie Mo, sophomore Marilyn Sauls and freshman Gloria Asumnu are all scheduled to compete for the Green Wave.
The Green Wave will have four of its individuals in action on Friday evening at 6 p.m. Jurlina will compete in the discus throw. The Tulane record-holder in that event, she finished 13th at the Regionals in 2003. Mo and Sauls will both be in action in the long jump. They are both making their regional debuts as is Asumnu, who will run the 100-meter dash.
On Saturday at 3 p.m., Jurlina will compete in the javelin throw. Last season, she placed fourth at the regionals and advanced to the National Championships, finishing 10th in the country. Leppanen will throw the shot put at 6 p.m. on Saturday. It is her first Regional Championship, but she did finish 15th nationally in the javelin as a freshman in 2002.
Regional qualifying meets (four, two-day events) were added to the NCAA Track and Field Championship structure last year, dramatically increasing the field sizes for the NCAA championships. Contestants at the national championships are determined by a combination of automatic qualifiers from the regional meets based on finish, and at-large qualifiers based on the descending-order lists from the regular season and regionals.
The top five finishers in each individual event and the top three teams in each relay event from each of the four regions will advance to the nationals. The fields, expected to be about 26 for each individual event and 17 teams in each relay, will then be completed by selecting at-large entrants. The Division I subcommittee will base its selections on the descending-order lists from all regular-season competition and the four regional meets. However, an athlete must compete in all events at a regional meet in which he or she wishes to remain eligible for an at-large spot to the national championships.
Players Mentioned
