May 26, 2007

EUGENE, Ore. - UNLV women track and field freshman Charlotte Browning finished eighth in the 1,500 meters on Saturday at the NCAA West Regional, held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

Browning ran a time of 4:25.43 in the event, which was three seconds behind the fifth-place time and an automatic bid to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Browning and Rebel teammate Aja Evans will now have to wait for the at-large bids to be released to see if they will be invited to the national meet. Evans finished sixth in the shot put with a distance of 49'-7.25". She missed an automatic bid to the outdoor championships by just one half inch, as the fifth-place mark was 49'-7.75".

The top-five individuals in each event and top-three relay event finishes earned invitations to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., on June 6-9. The remaining 6-8 slots in the approximate 26-28 person NCAA meet fields will be announced on Tuesday afternoon, May 29, by the NCAA championship committee.

The pair combined to give the Rebels four team points and a 27th-place finish at the regional, which was won by Arizona State with 94 team points. The Sun Devils were followed by USC (74) and then UCLA (67).

Also in the meet for UNLV was Meia Tezeno, who competed on Friday and recorded a distance of 18'-9.75" in the long jump and a time of 13.95 in the 100 meter hurdles. Tezeno did not qualify for the NCAA Championships in either event.