The last two Colonels competing in 2016-17, juniors Jamaine Coleman and Charlotte Imer, will compete at the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships June 7-10 at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
WHAT TO KNOW
– The entire four-day meet will be broadcast LIVE from TrackTown USA, in some way, by the ESPN family of networks.
– Coleman will compete in the semifinals of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase on Wednesday, June 7, at 8:02 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
– There will be two heats of steeplechase semifinals on Wednesday night. The top five finishers from each heat, plus the next two fastest times, advance to Friday’s final.
– If Coleman qualifies, the steeplechase finals will take place at 8:54 p.m. ET on Friday night, June 9, on ESPN.
– Imer will run in the finals of the women’s 5,000 meters on Saturday night, June 10, at 8:25 p.m. ET on ESPN.
– The top-eight finishers in every event at Hayward Field receive first team All-America honors. The second-eight finishers receive second team All-America honors. The final-eight finishers are named honorable mention All-America.
– Coleman arrives at the NCAA Championships with the second fastest steeplechase time in the country (8:34.1), which he ran at the NCAA East Region Preliminaries on May 26 in Lexington. The native of Preston, England was voted the Ohio Valley Conference Male Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and he cruised to OVC gold in his signature event with a time of 9:04.1. He is predicted by FloTrack to earn first team All-America honors with an eighth-place finish.
– EKU joins Louisville and Georgetown as one of only three schools to qualify a runner for the NCAA men’s steeplechase each of the last five seasons.
– Imer reached Eugene by finishing second overall in the 5,000 meters at the East Preliminaries with a time of 16:02.2. In March, Imer became the first EKU woman ever to run a sub-16:00 5K when she shattered the school record with a time of 15:59.3. The native of Melbourne, Australia was voted the OVC Female Track Athlete of the Year and won gold in the OVC 5,000 meters back in May.
– Imer is the first EKU woman to qualify for the NCAA 5,000 meters since Ann Eason in 2013.
– EKU is sending more athletes to the NCAA Championships than any other OVC school. Three other conference athletes will also compete in Eugene this week: Tennessee State’s Amber Hughes (women’s triple jump), Tennessee Tech’s Na’Asha Robinson (women’s 400 meters) and UT Martin’s Ann Asipan (women’s 5,000 meters).
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Steve Fohl
Associate Director of EKUSports Communications