April 26, 2005

Memphis, Tenn. - Following another tremendous performance at the Mississippi Open where he broke the school record in the 110m hurdles and improved his Regional qualifying time by over a tenth of a second, U of M senior Daniel Kiss continues to move up the national rankings in his specialty event.

As the rankings came out Tuesday, Kiss, who has improved his time and ranking in three of the last four meets, found his mark of 13.67s tied for the fifth-fastest time in the nation for the outdoor season. Additionally, the Budapest, Hungary native has moved up from ninth to sixth in Trackwire's Dandy Dozen, which is a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and in each NCAA event.

The Conference USA leader in the 110m hurdles, Kiss currently claims the top four times in C-USA this season and ranks third in the Mideast region for the event, behind only All-Americans Antwon Hicks of Ole Miss and Aries Merritt of Tennessee.

In addition to Kiss, four other Memphis athletes have qualified for NCAA Regional Championships and hold down conference and national rankings. Heading the list is Lady Tiger Lisa-Marie Hyman, who leads C-USA and ranks seventh in the Mideast Region and 25th nationally in the triple jump with her leap of 42-00.75" (12.82m). A second Lady Tiger triple jumper, Victoria Crawford, sits 14th in the region and 42nd in the nation with her regional-qualifying bound of 41-00.50" (12.51m).

On the men's side, fellow triple jumper Janon Busby leads the way with his C-USA topping mark of 50-08.25" (15.45m), which ranks eighth in the region and 27th nationally.

The remaining Tiger to qualify for Regionals thus far is Brandon Winbush, whose leap of 24-06.25" (7.47m) ranks 11th in the region and 34th in the nation.

A long list of additional Memphis athletes have legitimate shots at Regional qualifying standards and will have one more weekend of regular season competition along with C-USA Championships to reach those marks. The first of the two opportunities will come as the U of M squads split up for three meets this weekend.

In a change of schedule, no Memphis athletes will go to the Drake Relays as originally scheduled. However, portions of the teams will travel to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pa., the Indian Classic in Monroe, La., and the Cardinal Invitational in Stanford, Calif.

Follow results for all three meets this weekend at gotigersgo.com.