April 7, 2005

Memphis, Tenn. - Just a week after seeing Tigers Daniel Kiss, Janon Busby and Brandon Winbush qualify for NCAA Mideast Regional Championships at the Ole Miss Invitational, the Memphis track and field squads will return to Oxford, Miss., Saturday, April 9, for the Mississippi Invitational, where they will look to add to their list of regional comptetitors.

A total of five Memphis athletes have currently qualified for the NCAA Regional meet, which will be held May 27-28 in Bloomington, Ind., on the campus of Indiana University.

Accompanying the three qualifiers for the men are Lady Tigers Lisa-Marie Hyman and Victoria Crawford, who each qualified in the triple jump two weekends ago at the LSU Tiger Relays.

Along with qualifying for NCAA Regionals, three members of the group presently sit atop the C-USA rankings and among the top-15 in the nation in their respective events.

Leading the contingent is Hyman, who heads the conference list and ranks seventh nationally and fourth in the Mideast Region in the triple jump with a mark of 42.-00.75" (12.82m).

Additionally, Kiss and Busby lead the conference in the 110m hurdles and triple jump, respectively, with marks of 14.02 seconds and 50-00.75" (15.26m), while each ranks 14th in the nation in his event. Busby also ranks third in C-USA in the high jump with a mark of 6-08.00" (2.03m).

Crawford and Winbush presently hold down the fourth positions in the conference in the women's triple jump and men's long jump, respectively, with leaps of 41-00.50" (12.51m) and 24-01.00" (7.34m). Crawford's mark ranks 18th in the country, while Winbush's leaves him 24th.

Other U of M athletes who sit in the top-five in the conference at this point of the season are Daniele Riendeau, Chen Edri, Mary Claire Dake, Sam James and Norbert Gulyas. Riendeau is fourth in the 1500m, Edri is fourth in the javelin and Dake is fifth in the 3000m steeplechase for the women, while James is fifth in the 400m and Gulyas is fifth in the discus for the men. The men's 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams also hold fifth-place conference rankings.

A number of additional U of M athletes sit just outside the top-five and will look to improve upon those rankings this weekend. Competition at the Mississippi Invitational is set to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning with the women's hammer and javelin throws. Running events are scheduled to start at 12 p.m. with the women's 5000m. The final event, the men's 4x400m relay is slated for 5:45 p.m.

Results for the Mississippi Invitational will be available on the Ole Miss website, www.olemissports.com or the CFPI timing website, www.cfpitiming.com and will be posted at gotigersgo.com following the meet.