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May 23, 2005 PRINCESS ANNE, MD - Several members of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) track and field teams will compete at 2005 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's East Regional Track & Field Championships, scheduled for Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28 at Icahn Stadium in Randall's Island, N.Y. Six individuals have qualified for the competition, which will be hosted by Manhattan College. Sophomores Ronnie Beard and Dwayne Robinson have qualified for the 110m hurdles. Beard ran a personal best 14.24 at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championships on April 30 to earn a spot in the field, while Robinson, a transfer from Mid-American Nazarene in his first season with the Fighting Hawks, clocked in at 14.29 at the 49er Classic in the first meet of the season on March 18 to qualify. Robinson has improved his performance twice since then and set a new school record with his 13.94 finish at the MEAC Championships on April 30. Beard will compete in another event on the weekend, the 400 intermediate hurdles, after qualifying with a time of 51.91 at the Georgia Tech Invitational on May 14. Two distance runners, Barnabas Togom and Eva Slavikova, will head to New York this weekend. Togom qualified for the 3000m steeplechase after crossing the finish line in 9:33 at the MEAC Championships. Slavikova will compete in the 5000m run after winning her event in 18:02 at the conference championships. The sophomore from Czech Republic defeated several Big East and Conference USA members with her 17:35 finish at the 49er Classic. UMES has two athletes competing in field events. Lady Hawk Petagay O'Connor, who has been nursing an injury, qualified for the women's triple jump at the MEAC Championships. Kimani Kirton first qualified for the men's shot put on March 18 with a throw of 16.26 meters. Kirton, the 2005 MEAC indoor and outdoor shot put champion, has eclipsed the school record three times since then and set a new conference mark twice. He threw 18.64 meters (61 feet, 2 inches), a school record, on May 14 to place him 68th out of 80 on the 2005 IAAF World Rankings List. This is the second consecutive year O'Connor and Kirton have reached the East Regional Championships. The East Region, the largest of the four NCAA Regions, is comprised of colleges and universities from Connecticut, Washington DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and West Virginia. Over 1,000 athletes representing 112 colleges and universities will compete for a chance to advance to the NCAA Track and Field National Championships in Sacramento, Calif. on June 8-11. The top five finishers in each event will qualify for the Nationals.
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