May 24, 2007

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Nine members of the Southeast Missouri State University track and field teams will compete on Friday and Saturday at the NCAA Mideast Regional at the Audrey J. Walton Stadium, University of Missouri in Columbia.

"We don't have any competitors who are expected to advance to the NCAA finals, but we expect to compete against some of the top track talent in the nation and see what happens," said Southeast coach Joey Haines. "Brandon Colbert in the discus and John Berry in the long jump could advance if they have a big day."

Colbert, the OVC Field Athlete of the Year, is qualified in both the shot put and discus. He will throw the discus on Friday and the shot on Saturday. Berry will compete at 5 p.m. on Friday in the long jump.

Brandon Karcher, the OVC Track Athlete of the Year, will compete in the 5,000-meters at 8:40 p.m. Friday. He has a best time of 15:04.67 which is 31st best in the Mideast Region.

The Southeast 4 X 400-meter relay team of David Reid, Myron Pettigrew, Chris Poindexter and Chris Williams has run 3:11.91 this season and hopes to lower that time while passing several schools to move up against the top ranked relay teams in the nation.

The Redhawks women will be represented by Lindsay Zeiler in the 1500-meters and Juli Koenegstein in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Zeiler currently ranks 31st with a best of 4:33.21 while Koenegstein ranks 18th with a time of 10:44.34. Zeiler will run prelims on Friday while Koenegstein will run at 6:40 p.m. on Saturday.

"The Mideast Regional is the toughest in the nation with teams from the Southeastern Conference, the Big 10 and Big 12," Haines said. "With seven of our nine competitors all returning next season it will be great experience."

The top five in each event will advance to the NCAA finals in Sacramento, Calif.