June 9, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - All-American sprinter Miles Smith of Southeast Missouri State University will challenge a very talented field in the semi-finals of the NCAA 400-meters on Friday.

Smith will run in lane four of the first heat and will be next to pre-meet favorite Xavier Carter of LSU who entered the national championships with the fastest time in the nation this season at 44.84. Carter, the NCAA indoor champion who will be in lane five, timed 45.51 in Wednesday's opening round while Smith had the second fastest qualifying time of 45.41

The top three from each semi-final heat plus the next best two times will advance to Saturday's national championship. Tonight's semi-final will be televised live by cable CSTV with the 400-meters scheduled for 7:35 p.m.

Saturday's finals will be televised live on CBS-TV from 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The 400-meter final is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. on Saturday.

NCAA 400-meter semi-finals, 7:35 p.m. (CDT)

Advance top 3 from each semi plus next best 2 times to final.

Name Year School Prelims Semis =============================================================================== Heat 1 Semis 1 1146 Bruce Jackson SR Washington 46.41 2 846 Ron Michael Hillian SR Long Island 46.37 3 889 Aaron Buzard JR Minnesota 46.30 4 998 Miles Smith JR SE Missouri 45.41 5 855 Xavier Carter SO LSU 45.51 6 963 Matt Scherer SR Oregon 45.52 7 1110 Craig Everhart SR UCLA 45.68 8 799 David Neville, Jr. JR Indiana 45.70 Heat 2 Semis 1 856 Reginald Dardar SO LSU 46.41 2 1006 Albert Turner JR Southern 46.25 3 649 Reggie Witherspoon JR Baylor 45.97 4 1017 Lionel Larry SO USC 46.06 5 748 Ricardo Chambers SO Fla State 44.99 6 1036 Lewis Banda SR TCU 45.62 7 730 Sekou Clarke SR Florida 45.88 8 1080 Justin Oliver FR Texas A&M