Feb. 25, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - Having closed the door on another successful regular season, the UCF track and field team will compete in this weekend's Conference USA Indoor Championships at Yeoman Fieldhouse. The championships will be hosted by the University of Houston.
At the 2009 C-USA Indoor Championships, UCF had two athletes - current sophomore Sheila Paul (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla.) and graduated senior Dione Thomas (Jacksonville, Fla.) - claim individual event championships as the Knights finished in third place. The finish shattered the program's previous best finish of seventh at the 2006 championship.
Paul won the 60-meter dash a season ago and will enter this weekend's championships with the league's seventh-best time of the season in the event. The sophomore is also among the top 10 athletes in the field in the 200-meter dash.
UCF has an impressive trio of student-athletes in the 60-meter hurdles as senior Tiki James (Miami, Fla.), sophomore Jackie Coward (Knoxville, Tenn.) and junior Micaela Wimberly (Miami, Fla.) rank as the top three C-USA athletes in the event. James holds one of the top-10 times in the nation in the event, running an 8.19 at the Rod McCravy Invitational. Coward crossed in 8.19 a season ago to set a meet record at the C-USA Indoor Championships.
One other Knight has the top mark of the conference heading into the weekend. Junior Samantha Shields (Orlando, Fla.) will be one of 14 athletes in the pentathlon and has the top point total in the event this season with 3,576 points.
Senior LaKendra Thames (Winter Garden, Fla.) is seeded second in both the weight throw and shot put heading into Friday's action. She has set school records in both events this season, with a top mark of 14.90m 48-10.75 in the shot put and 18.73m 61-05.50 in the weight throw.
Other Knights seeded among the top-10 in their respective events are: Champelle Brown (7th, 400m), Carley Dart (9th, 800m), Ashley Bolling (10th, 60mH), Sonnisha Williams (7th, Long Jump), Jacquelyn Gilchrist (10th, Long Jump) and Tomika Story (4th, Triple Jump).
The action will begin at 10 a.m. EST Saturday morning with the pentathlon and continue throughout the day with field events and preliminaries in the running events. Fans can also track the championships via live scoring by clicking here
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For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.