NCAA TRACK AND FIELD REGIONALS BEGIN TODAY -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SAVAGE, MARTIN AND SCOTT IN TOP DOZEN FOR THEIR EVENTS. 

We took a look Monday at UofL women's track and field's three pole vault student athletes that will compete in Bloomington, IN beginning today in the DI NCAA Track and Field Regionals  Let's shift focus today to three other members of the women's squad who were ranked in the top 12 going in to their events.

In the long jump, Synclair Savage is ranked fourth amongst the participants and performed a jump of 6.65 M in the ACC Championships to win the event. She is a sophomore at UofL and began her collegiate career at South Carolina

In the high jump, Emily Scott won the high jump in the ACC Championships with a leap of 1.82 M. That equals out to 5'11" in feet, which means she could have cleared Volleyball teammate Tori Dilfer with a half-inch to spare. Scott is also a middle blocker on the Volleyball squad and stands 6'2". 

Katie Martin will compete in the 400m hurdles and recently set a Louisville school record in the event. She comes to Louisville by way of Mississippi State and is a redshirt junior. 

Rounding out the rest of the UofL women's participants:

Taylor Herbert will run in the 100M dash, Soledad Jean joins Scott in the high jump, Brooke Weimer competes in the long jump, Katherine Coffey is in the discus throw and the Cards have a relay team that qualified in the 4x100 M composed of Savage, Herbert, Je'Nyia Burton and Kiyah Yeast.

IU has set up a link to watch the regionals and you can access it HERE

We wish all the Louisville athletes competing in the Regionals the best of luck in the four day event!

paulie

Women's Track Sending 12 to NCAA -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD SENDING 12 TO REGIONALS

Leon

The NCAA Regionals that UofL Track and Field will participate in will take place in Bloomington, IN at IU from May 25-28. Louisville has 12 student-athletes of their track and field squad that will be taking part in. 

Let's take a look at one of the field events the Cards could finish very well in... 

Welter

Louisville will be sending three pole vault participants to compete, which speaks volumes on how strong that particular part of the Cards field events crew is. Gabriela Leon leads the "vaulters" -- she's a two-time ACC Champion and holds the record at UofL. Aliyah Welter is another strong performer in the pole vault for the Cards and  Auriane Viola (from France) was the French National Champion in the pole vault her senior year in high school. 

Leon has the fifth highest vault in the NCAA women's rankings this year -- with a 4.46m { 14'7.5") vault, accomplished in the ACC Indoor Championships. Welter is 22nd in the nation. Two Virginia Tech vault specialists are in the top three of the rankings. 

Viola

The art of the pole vault is a bit different that your average field event, since you're using a pole to propel you to heights. It takes a combination of building up a good speed running down the runway, carrying your pole, getting your steps right as you prepare to plant the pole and jump and then planting it and allowing the flexible pole to send you skyward. Clearing the horizontal bar some 14 feet up there in the air without touching it is your next task and then you fall downward and end up in a bed of foam. 

I thought I might want to be a pole vault jumper at one time in my life, but just couldn't get the mechanics of it down and stuck with the much more simpler long and triple jumping events. 

As the regionals get closer, we'll also look at two other field events where the Cards took first place in the ACC Championships --- the high jump and long jump. 

paulie