WHITE ADVANCES TO NATIONALS IN DISCUS FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - One day after senior thrower Teremine White claimed a top-ten performance in the shot put, the Donaldsonville native turned in a fifth-place performance in the discus to lead the Southeastern Louisiana University trak and field program on day two of the 2008 NCAA Mideast Regionals.
White's toss of 183 ft. 2 in. (55.82 m) was good enough to tie Auburn's Edis Elkasevic for fifth place and earn a trip to the 2008 NCAA National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa June 11-14.
Freshman triple jumper Michael Rheams, who finished eighth in the triple jump with a leap of 50 ft. 11 in. (15.52 m), has a chance to join White at the Drake University-hosted championships, but the Walker native must wait for the other regionals to complete to be certain his 50-plus foot jump is enough to hold up.
The men's 4x400 m Relay squad turned in a gutsy performance with Adlus Wiltz running anchor with a bad hamstring injury. The first three legs of George Cunningham, Jerel Butler and Brent Alfred were in the hunt early on before handing off to Wiltz. The squad clocked a time of 3:21.94 to claim 12th. "I'm very proud of the performances of our athletes," Southeastern head coach Sean Brady. "They all came to compete and we turned in some career best marks along the way. Teremine did a great job all season long, and it will be great to see him in action at the national meet. We would love it if Michael joined him, but for a freshman he has had a fantastic season. We knew coming in that the relay team would be at a handicap with Adlus' injury. He couldn't even run in the 400m hurdles yesterday, but he had to line him up for a false start so he was eligible. He and the rest of the squad really ran their hearts out. All-in-all it was a pretty good meet. With the strong performances that we had from underclassmen like Shannon Grover and Michael Rheams, this bodes very well for us in the coming years."
The Lions finish the 2008 NCAA Regionals 33rd overall. White will return to action at the NCAA Nationals June 11-14. The Southeastern coaching staff will await word on Rheams' bid for a trip to Des Moines.