March 10, 2005

LAS VEGAS - Senior multi-event athlete Christine Spence will be representing UNLV at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark.

The championships begin Friday and runs through Saturday at the University of Arkansas.

Spence will be attempting to earn All-America honors for the first time in indoor track and field and second time overall as a Rebel. Last year Spence earned All-America honors in the 400 meter hurdles in outdoor track and field.

Spence enters the five-event pentathlon with the 16th-best point total in the country with 3,958 points. Spence racked up those points in a second-place effort two weeks ago at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships. She finished second in the league to BYU's Amy Menlove, who scored 4,172 points to win the conference crown in the pentathlon. Menlove's total is the second-highest in the nation. Ashley Selig of Nebraska has the top total in the nation with 4,269 points.

The pentathlon gets underway Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. (PST) with the 60 meter hurdles. Spence's strongest event, the high jump, is next and then the shot put, long jump and 800 meters follow.