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Bulls Prepare for NCAA Regional Championships

BUFFALO, NY – A total of eight University at Buffalo athletes have qualified in 10 events for this weekend's NCAA East Regional Track and Field Championships in Gainesville, FL. The competition is slated for Friday, May 25 and Saturday, May 26 at the University of Florida's James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track.

Representing the UB women at the meet will be shot putters Sarah Vance (Lockport, NY/Lockport) and Tina Villa (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Springs), javelin thrower Vanessa Roelofsen (Alma, Ontario/Norwell District SS) and high jumper Caitlin Godin (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia). For the UB men, hurdler Reggie Rucker (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech), horizontal jumpers Roy Richards (Rochester, NY/Edison Tech) and Rayshon Higgins (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon-St. Jude) and shot putter Jake Madonia (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) are expected to compete.

The top five finishers in each individual event will automatically qualify for June's NCAA Championships in Sacramento, CA. Along with the top five finishers from each of the four regions, a total of 20, up to eight additional athletes may be selected to compete in the national meet based on their rankings.

Sarah Vance

Vance has qualified in three women's events, the shot put, hammer and discus, however she will skip the discus to concentrate on the other two events. Vance is among the top 20 in the hammer throw with her best toss of 198-10 (60.37m) ranking 19th in the nation. She is also currently ranked 37th nationally and 11th in the East Region in the shot put (50-6.75, 15.41m) and 66th nationally and 16th in the East in the discus (161-0, 49.07m). Vance was a second-team All-Mid-American Conference selection at the conference championship meet earlier this month and represented UB at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in the shot put last March. This is Vance's third time at the regional competition. She placed 13th in the hammer and 15th in the shot put at the 2005 event and also competed in the two events in 2004 when the regional was last held in Gainesville.

Tina Villa

Villa has also qualified in the women's shot put and ranks just behind Vance with her best throw of 49-7 (15.11m) earning her a third-place finish at the MAC Championships. Villa currently ranks 53rd in the country and 13th in the region in the event.

Vanessa Roelofsen

Roelofsen won her first MAC javelin title at the league championships in Oxford, OH on May 11 after finishing second in the event each of her first two seasons and earning first-team All-MAC honors. Roelofsen, the UB record holder in the javelin, earned her spot in the regional field with a top toss of 149-4 (45.52m) to finish second behind Duke's Dainia Pucurs (12th in the nation) at the Wake Forest Open on March 24. This season, Roelofsen is ranked 59th in the country and 17th in the East Region. Roelofsen finished second at last season's NCAA East Regionals and earned a trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships where she took 16th place.

Caitlin Godin

Godin posted her regional qualifying mark of 5-8.75 (1.75m) in the high jump competition at the Wake Forest Open, finishing third among 17 jumpers. The two jumpers Godin finished behind at the Wake Forest meet currently rank 19th and 21st nationally. Godin is listed at number 71 in the national rankings and 18th among high jumpers in the East Region. She competed in the 2006 Regionals in Greensboro, NC in the high jump but failed to move past the first round.

Reggie Rucker

Rucker has qualified in both the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles. Rucker ranks 15th in the country and sixth in the region in the 400-meter event, winning the MAC Championhip in a UB record 50.75 seconds. He also won the MAC title in the 110-meter hurdles in another UB record time of 14.05 seconds. That mark is currently 41st in the country and 12th in the region.

Rayshon Higgins

Higgins will be making his third appearance in the regional competition after finishing 19th in 2004 and 13th last season in the triple jump. Higgins won his second consecutive MAC triple jump crown at this season's conference meet with a leap of 50-10.25 (15.50m), his season-best mark, gaining first-team All-MAC honors. The leap currently ranks him 38th in the nation and 10th in the East Region. It is also three-quarters of an inch off of Kamau Halim's UB record in the event, set in 2000.

Roy Richards

Richards earned All-East honors at last season's meet by scoring a fourth-place finish and advancing to the national finals with his record-setting mark of 24-11 (7.59m). He turned in his top mark this season at the MAC Championships with his third-place finish of 24-2.50 (7.38m). Richards is currently 80th in the country and 21st in the region in the event.

Jake Madonia

Madonia earned his first trip to the regionals after winning the shot put compettion at the UB Open on April 21 with a toss of 55-8 (16.97m). He finished sixth at the MAC Championshps and presently ranks 101st in the country and 27th in the region in the men's shot put.

Competion begins on Friday at noon with the women's hammer throw. Other events for Friday include the women's high jump, javelin and shot put as well as the men's long jump. The preliminary rounds of the men's hurdles are also slated for Friday. Saturday's events include the men's shot put and triple jump and the women's discus as well as the finals of the men's hurdles. Besides Gainesville, other regional competition sites include Columbia, MO (Mideast), Des Moines, IA (Midwest) and Eugene, OR (West). The East Region is the largest of the four regions, encompassing 16 states along the Atlantic seaboard and the District of Columbia. A total of 110 men's and 112 women's Division I programs are in the region.