May 28, 2005

EUGENE, Ore - Christine Spence won the 400 meter hurdles and Halima Decree added a second-place finish in the 100 meters to lead UNLV women's track and field Saturday at the NCAA Outdoor West Regional Championships at Haywood Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

The top five finishers from each individual regional event and the top three relays earned automatic invites to the NCAA Championships, Wed.-Sat., June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif.

Spence won the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 58.50, finishing more than a second ahead of Mackenzie Hill of UCLA, who came in second with a 59.60. The victory in the event gives Spence the opportunity to earn her second All-America honors in the event as the senior finished seventh at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 57.20. Spence will also compete at the 2005 NCAA Championships in the high jump after she finished fifth in the event Saturday, clearing 5'-9.35".

DeCree narrowly missed the title in the 100 meters, finishing second by four-thousandths of a second to Janice Davis of Stanford, who won with a time of 11.61 compared to DeCree's time of 11.65.

Miesha McClendon ran a 14.17 in the 100 meter hurdles to finish seventh and Michele Suszek added a 15 th-place finish in the steeplechase with a time of 10:44.35. UNLV's 4x100 meter relay squad finished eighth with a time of 46.38 to wrap up the Rebels' meet.