Nov. 23, 2005

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's track and field team signed Maryland prep stand out Shalaiyah Sommerville to a national letter of intent, head coach Barbara Ferrell-Edmonson announced Wednesday. Sommerville is the only student-athlete that the Rebels signed during the early signing period.

One of the premier sprinters in Maryland, Sommerville is a senior at Western High School in Baltimore, Md., and she is the current class 3A state champion in the 200 and 400. Her career-best times in those events are 24.24 in the 200 and 55.54 in the 400. To go along with her two titles in the 200 and 400 at last year's Maryland state meet, Sommerville ran the anchor leg on the 4x200 meter relay and led Western to the state title.

"She is a talented young lady who hopefully will make a deciding factor in turning our team around," Ferrell-Edmonson said. "She's a multi-talented athlete and she will hopefully be a step toward winning conference in the future."

Sommerville is a two-time Baltimore Sun all-metro selection and she is among the nation's leaders in the 200, 300, 400 and the 500 according to DyeStat's rankings. She plans on majoring in kinesiology sciences at UNLV.