Nelson, Smith do well at regional

The two Redhawks were in good position to make the national meet.

Southeast Missourian

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Southeast Missouri State's Miles Smith and Alonzo Nelson had impressive showings Friday as the NCAA Mideast Regional track and field meet began at Indiana University.

As a result of performances that sent them into today's finals, Smith and Nelson closed in on likely berths in the NCAA Championships, set for June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif.

The top five finishers in each individual event at the four regionals across the country qualify for nationals, plus eight more at-large qualifiers in each event will come from the top marks turned in nationally this season, providing those athletes reach regional finals.

Smith in the 400-meter dash and Nelson in the 400-meter hurdles both have national top-10 times this season -- so by making the regional finals they will likely earn at-large berths into the NCAA Championships regardless of how they fare today.

Smith, a sophomore, entered competition Friday with the regional's second-fastest time of 45.45 seconds, which placed him fifth nationally.

Smith, Southeast's only national qualifier during the indoor season -- when there is no regional format -- finished with the second-fastest time in Friday's preliminaries as his 45.94 seconds trailed only Arkansas' Terry Gatson (45.87).

Nelson, a junior, entered action Friday with the regional's fourth-fastest time of 50.77 seconds, which placed him ninth nationally.

Nelson had the sixth-fastest time in Friday's preliminaries as he clocked 51.12 seconds. Abe Jones of Illinois had the top time among the eight finals qualifiers (50.11).

Southeast will have one other entry today as the 1,600-meter relay team anchored by Smith -- the group includes Chris Poindexter, Chaz Brown and Nelson -- competes. The squad has the sixth-fastest regional time (3:07.33) and must finish in the top three to qualify for nationals, but could gain an at-large berth.

In Friday's event finals, Jason Theodorakos was ninth in the javelin (197 feet 7 inches) and Andrew Lambert was 13th in the high jump (6-9). Also, Brian Knippen fouled in all four of his attempts in both the shot put and discus, while Kathy Coleman did not make the finals in the long jump.

Also Friday, Southeast's 400-meter relay team of Smith, Poindexter, Jon Jefferson and Seth Schuster just missed on qualifying for today's finals, placing ninth in the preliminaries with a season-best time of 40.49. The eighth and final qualifying spot was 40.43.

Southeast's other female regional participant, Brooke Woodruff, failed to qualify for the 800-meter finals as she placed 10th in Friday's preliminaries with 2:08.75.