Sarah Vance Earns Spot in NCAA Championship Field

Sarah Vance

BUFFALO, NY – University at Buffalo senior women's thrower Sarah Vance (Lockport, NY/Lockport) will represent the Bulls at this weekend's NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Fayetteville, AR. Vance will compete in the women's shot put competition and is one of 17 indviduals invited for the event.

Vance secured her spot in the national field by setting a UB school record of 52-8.75 (16.07m) at the Penn State National Meet on January 27, winning the competition. The throw was an NCAA provisional qualifying mark, meaning that it was good enough to be considered for the national meet after all the competitors with automatic qualifying marks made the field. Those with provisional marks then were added to the field in descending order of their distances until the field of 17 entrants was filled. Six individuals attained the automatic distance of 16.90m while the remainder earned provisional marks during the season.

Sarah Vance

Vance is listed 16th among the 17 entrants in the competition and is one of two Mid-American Conference athletes that will comprise the field. Akron's Stevi Large qualified 17th with a toss 16.06m. Niagara Falls native Brittany Pryor, now at Virginia Tech, is also in the field.

Six throwers in this year's field competed in last year's championships, including defending NCAA champion Michelle Carter of Texas and third-place finisher Sarah Stevens of Arizona State. Stevens has this season's top throw of 17.86m while Carter is second at 17.79m.

Vance has won the women's shot put in five of the seven meets she has entered this season for the Bulls, finishing third in the other two against NCAA-caliber opposition.

The women's shot put preliminaries and finals are scheduled for Friday, March 9 at 3:30 pm (ET). Results will be available on the NCAA's website (www.ncaasports.com). The Randall Tyson Indoor Track Center at the University of Arkansas is hosting the National Championship meet for the eighth consecutive year.

Vance is the first UB women's athlete to compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships since Laura Olson finished 14th in the pole vault at the 2004 Championships.