March 31, 2006
ORLANDO - The UCF women's track and field team makes its third and final trip to Gainesville this season for the UF Diet Pepsi Classic on Saturday.
The Golden Knights opened the indoor season at Florida's UF Invitational and also competed in the UF Pepsi Invitational as well. This weekend UCF athletes look to duplicate their strong performances at those meets. Among the other schools scheduled to compete are host Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, South Carolina, Indiana, Virginia and Conference USA foe East Carolina.
Headlining the list of Golden Knights competing are seniors Tiffany Roebuck and Diana Chin and junior Katie Fowke.
Roebuck enters the meet with C-USA's best mark in the hammer throw after breaking the school record and qualifying for the NCAA Regional at the Disney Relays on March 11 with a throw of 192-feet, three inches. She is also fourth in the league in the shot put at 45-8 and seventh in the discus at 138-8, both marks she earned at the Disney Invitational a week ago.
A former NCAA Regional qualifier, senior Rian Thomas goes head-to-head with Roebuck in the hammer. She is third in the conference with a mark of 171-7.
Also ranked among C-USA's elite, Chin is second in the long jump rankings after posting a season-best mark of 19-6.25 at the Disney Invitational. She races in her first 100-meter hurdle event of the outdoor season in Gainesville.
In the pole vault, Fowke is fresh from a third-place finish at the Disney Invitational, where she recorded a mark of 11-5.75 which ties her for first with ECU's Lindsey Rosales on the conference performance list. A two-time NCAA Regional qualifier and the school recordholder at 12-0, Fowke is looking to improve upon that effort. She will be joined by sophomore Michelle Teuton, who currently sits in fifth in the league's rankings at 10-10.25.
Teammates in the 4x400m relay, sophomore Victoria Chin and freshman Shantile Blackburn will also race in individual events on the track. Chin tries to better her time of 61.93 in the 400mH as she looks to move from second to first in the league, while Blackburn, who enters the weekend fourth in the 1500m, runs in the 800m for the first time this season.