COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Storyline: The UNLV women's track and field team will compete in the inaugural Mountain West Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Cadet Field House in Colorado Springs, CO, beginning Thursday, Feb. 24. Competition will last for three days and feature all eight teams from the newly-formed league: Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming. The Rebels finished sixth at last year's WAC Indoor championships and finished second at the outdoor meet. They will challenge BYU for the first MWC title.

Pentathletes Compete First: The pentathlon will be the first event contested with competition in all five events scheduled for Thursday. In her last pentathlon, senior Heather Steadham scored only a disappointing 2,808 points and finished tenth. However, she failed to score any points in the long jump, her best of the five events. Already this indoor season, Steadham has cleared a personal best 18-3.75, the fifth best in the league. That mark would have earned her an additional 723 points for a total of 3,531 and a second-place finish. Steadham finished second in last year's outdoor heptathlon at the WAC Championships...Steadham has benefitted from the addition of her new training partner, freshman Chantel Yates. Yates finished third overall in her first collegiate pentathlon, scoring a league-high 3,322 points. She was honored as the MWC's Athlete of the Week for her efforts, and is the favorite to win the conference title. The Rebels are hoping for a 1-2 finish in the pentathlon.

Sprinters Are Conference Favorites: The UNLV sprint corps is as hot as usual with Rebels owning the best marks in the league in the three sprint events to this point in the season. Senior Ayanna Hutchinson has been on a tear this year, consistently trimming her time in the 60 meters. She has already qualified for the NCAA Championships on Mar. 5-6 with a 7.38 time in her last race...Sophomore Michele Davis was exceptional in her only other conference championship meets, garnering WAC Freshman of the Year kudos both indoors and outdoors last season. This year, she has the top MWC times in the 200 meters (24.13) and 400 meters (54.92). She clocked a provisional qualifying time by hand in the 200 at the Wolf Pack Invitational, but will need to achieve the mark on an automatic timing system before earning her pass to the NCAAs...Just behind Davis on the 200 meter list is Hutchinson with a time of 24.40. They are hoping for a 1-2 finish in the 200...Freshman Erin Dangerfield has made great strides over the short season and will look to sneak into the top eight and score in both the 100 and 200 meters.

Distance Crew Looks To Hold Off Cougars: Standing in the way of the Rebels' first indoor title since 1993 is BYU. The Cougars are the defending WAC Champions in cross country, indoor and outdoor track, and they do it with distance. They own several of the top spots in the 800 meters, the mile, the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. The senior trio of Stephanie Davidson, Kathryn Goetz and Paula Lechner will look to break up the Cougars' numbers at the top of the heap. Each run in the league's top 10 in at least one event and can really help the Rebels' cause by stealing some points from BYU in these events...Junior Jenni Nelson has been a workhorse this season as the only true distance runners available. With Katie Barto out, she has been picking up the slack in the 3,000 and could make a move into the top five.

Field's Goals: The goals of the field crew will be to scramble for as many points as possible. All-American Jessica Marable, while a steady qualifier for the NCAA Championships in the shot put, has not been able to capture a conference title. She has again qualified for the NCAAs, but ranks third in the MWC shot put standings...With the pentathlon out of the way on Thursday, look for Steadham and Yates to go to work in other events, like the long jump, triple jump and javelin. Newcomer Belisa Suarez, who has done an outstanding job as a walk on, will join them in trying to score...UNLV will enjoy the benefits of true high jumpers for the first time in several years. Freshman Tianika Sharrieff and Emily McCarter both figure in the conference's top eight and will bring back some extra points...Pole vaulter Charlotte McGee broke her own indoor school record by eight inches and will look to improve upon her all-conference performance from a year ago.