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Laura Olson

BUFFALO, NY - University at Buffalo senior Laura Olson (Lyons, NY/Lyons) has been selected to compete in the women's pole vault at this weekend's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, AR. The field for the 22nd annual national meet was announced late Monday night. A total of 270 women are entered in the NCAA Championships, including 17 in the pole vault. Olson becomes the first UB athlete to earn a trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships in the Division I history of program.

Olson earned the trip with her school-record vault of 13-4.25 (4.07m) at the Armory Collegiate Invitational on February 13 while also breaking her own meet record, set the previous season, by nearly a foot.

Olson will be competing in her second NCAA Championship meet. She placed 13th at the 2003 outdoor championships in Sacramento, CA last June, finishing at a height of 12-9.50 (3.90m).

The Mid-American Conference will be well-represented at this year's championships in the women's pole vault with three entrants (Olson, Kira Sims of Akron and Jackie Rodgers of Kent State) in the field.

The women's pole vault competition will start at 6:35 pm (ET) on Friday night. Complete results will be posted on the NCAA's website, www.ncaasports.com.

UB middle-distance runner Allison Laske (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) missed making the field for the women's 800-meter championship. Laske, who set a UB record of 2:07.62 to win the ECAC Championship on Sunday, was three-quarters of a second shy of making the 16-woman field. Akron junior Beata Rudzinska, whom Laske finished second to in the MAC Championships on February 28, is the fastest qualifier in the field.