Outdoor Track & Field Gears Up for NCAA East Regional

2017 N CAA East Regional
When	Thursday, May 25 - Saturday, May 27
Where	University of Kentucky Outdoor T&F Facility \| Lexington, Ky.
Start Lists	Men \| Women
Regional Central	Click Here
Live Stream	Day 1 \| Day 2 \| Day 3
Social Media	Twitter: @GreenWaveXCTF \| Facebook: /GreenWaveXCTF Instagram: @tulanetrackandfield

NEW ORLEANS – Nine members of Tulane's outdoor track & field squad that posted qualifying marks throughout the regular season are all set for this weekend's 2017 NCAA East Regional, a three-day event featuring the nation's top competition with hopes of making an appearance at the NCAA National Championships. This year's regional meet will take place at the University of Kentucky Outdoor Track & Field Facility in Lexington, Kentucky, beginning on Thursday, May 25 and concluding Saturday, May 27.

ABOUT THE NCAA EAST REGIONAL

Tulane will send nine student-athletes to Lexington, marking the second consecutive year that a group of this size will travel to the regional meet. In that number are seven women, including three in the pole vault and trio of throwers, and two men. Emmanuel Rotich and Raymond Kibet's trip to Lexington represents the first time since the 2012 season that Tulane has qualified two men to the regional meet, while Rotich will become the first male in school history to compete in more than one event.

Student-athletes ranking in the top 48 in the nation were selected to participate in each regional meet, where they will compete in preliminaries and quarterfinals in order to qualify for the NCAA National Championships. The top 12 in each event will head to the national meet in June.

Competition in Lexington opens up Thursday at 3:00 p.m. CT with Daliadiz Ortiz and Laruschka Joubert in the javelin, followed shortly by a trio of Green Wave women - Alyssa Applebee, Mary Carson Pitts and Rebekah Markel - in the pole vault and Jessica Duckett in the prelims of the 400m hurdles half an hour later. That evening, freshman Raymond Kibet will run in the prelims of the men's 400m dash.

Tulane will begin Friday afternoon with a second prelim performance from Duckett in the 100m hurdles. Quarterfinals of the men's 400m dash and women's 400m hurdles will take place later on in the evening, and Emmanuel Rotich will close out the night in the 3,000m steeplechase for his first race of the weekend.

Action at the NCAA East Regional will wrap up on Saturday evening with the quarterfinals of the women's 100m hurdles and Rotich's second race in the men's 5,000m run. In the field, Taylor Potts will close out the Green Wave in the women's shot put.

Heading into the weekend, four Green Wave student-athletes rank within the top ten of their events, with Ortiz coming in at No. 5 in the javelin on her school record-breaking mark of 53.50m. Alyssa Applebee, Tulane's leading jumper, ranks sixth in the pole vault with her own school record of 4.27m, while Kibet and Rotich rank tenth in the 400m dash (45.67) and 3,000m steeplechase (8:56.75), respectively. Sitting just outside of the top ten are Duckett in the 400m hurdles and Pitts in the pole vault, who both rank 13th in the East Region.

UP NEXT

The top 12 finishers in each event will qualify for the NCAA National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, taking place June 7-10.

Tulane Entries for the NCAA East Regional

Women's 100m Hurdles

Jessica Duckett

Women's 400m Hurdles

Women's Pole Vault

Women's Shot Put