Lady Vols run away with Mideast Regional

The University of Tennessee came in as the No. 5 team in the team in the country and lived up to their ranking by winning impressively at the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Regional Friday and Saturday at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex.\nThe Lady Volunteers were paced by first-place finishes in several events including the 200 meter dash, 400 meter Dash, 4 X 100 relay, 4 X 400 relay, and the long jump. Tennessee scored 82 team points, finishing ahead of Louisiana State University with 61. Michigan rounded out the top-three with 42.5 points. IU managed only nine points, and qualified no athletes for the NCAA Championships June 8-11 in Sacramento Calif. at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex. \nDespite not qualifying any athletes for the NCAAs, four Hoosiers received at-large bids to the championships. Juniors Larra Overton and Kelly Siefker will join sophomores Stacey Clausing and and Lorian Price in representing IU.\nOverall, the Hoosier athletes competed in six finals events throughout the weekend. The top five individuals and top three relay teams in each event qualified earning a spot in the championships. Though the Hoosiers were unable to place anyone in the championships, there is still hope that two athletes might sneak in.\nEven though only the top five individuals from each event automatically qualify for Nationals, the athletes from the regionals who didn't qualify are put into a pool for a chance at an at-large bid to compete at the NCAA Championships. IU coach Randy Heisler thought junior Kelly Siefker, and junior Larra Overton, who finished 6th in the 1500 meter with a time of 4 minutes and 26.33 seconds, just a second away from qualifying for Nationals, have a shot to continue their seasons.\n"I think Kelly and Larra have a chance," Heisler said. "It's going to be real close."\nSophomore Cassie Hunt from Illinois won the 3000 meter Steeplechase with a time of 10:07.29 and Siefker placed 7th with a time of 10:27.80. She said she feels she ran well.\n"I ran a smart race," Siefker said. "I laid back and knew where I was and tried to move up from there. I tried a little different approach and I think it worked out better."\nSophomore Lorian Price competed in the 100 meter hurdles, winning her heat Friday for a trip to the finals Saturday. Price led the race Saturday until the last two hurdles in which she skimmed the eighth hurdle losing her balance and resulting in a seventh place finish at 13.71 seconds. Junior Raquel Washington from Southern Mississippi University captured the event in a time of 13.34 seconds.\n"I hit (the hurdle) with my trail leg and it just threw me off and had me twisted enough to lose balance and speed," Price said. "I went to both heats focused knowing I needed to run fast to get to nationals."\nCoach Heisler felt bad for Price as she was running a great race up until the end, he said.\n"That's tough because she was running a personal record time and she just hit a hurdle," Heisler said. "She showed so much improvement from last month."\nFellow sophomore Stacey Clausing competed in the 400 meter dash, earning a seventh place finish with a time of 53.63 seconds, and also in the 4 X 400 relay which IU placed ninth with a time of 3:39.94 seconds. Clausing believes she ran great races, but the toughest part of the weekend was the amount of fierce competition involved.\n"I think I went out and did what I had to do. It was just of lot of tough competition," Clausing said. "It just didn't go my way today."\nHeisler said he felt Clausing did a remarkable job and is close to becoming an elite runner in the future.\n"(Clausing) is extremely close to being scary fast," Heisler said. It's so gutsy of her to run to the wall and try to hang on. A year from now -- well let's put it this way, she's a competitor."\nThe team loses six seniors this year but has a bright future ahead of them. Clausing, Overton, Siefker, and Price will be coming back next year to continue their pursuit of qualifying for the NCAA National \nChampionships.\nPrice feels the biggest thing she has to work on to reach her goal is her technique, she said.\n"I have to make (my technique) more sound so I can have more consistency," Price said. "This will make my speed a little faster, so I can maintain my technique with the actual speed"