JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of South Alabama track and field team entries, including a program-record 12 student-athletes, will begin competition on Thursday at the 2015 NCAA East Region Preliminaries at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.   

"It shows that we are recruiting and developing athletes at a high level," Jaguar head coach Paul Brueske said of the record number of participants.  "At the same time the Sun Belt is also becoming very strong, so we have to keep improving."

Thursday's events for the Jags are the men's hammer throw — with both sophomore Zach Blahnik and junior Renaldo Frechou competing — while redshirt freshman Barbara Rivera will take part in the women's javelin throw, with both events starting at 11 a.m. (CDT). Frechou, who is ranked fourth in the region, is South Alabama's highest seed after qualifying with a distance of 69.67m at the Sun Belt Outdoor Track and Field Championships. At the Tiger Track Classic in April, Blahnik earned his seeding of 46th with a 61.03m mark. Rivera's best throw of 46.68m at the Southern Miss Invitational has her seeded 32nd.

Sophomore LaMia Miller posted a shot put distance of 15.68m at the Sun Belt Championships to qualify for the regional and will compete at 2:30 p.m.; she is going into the event ranked 22nd out of the 48 competitors. Entering the preliminaries seeded 41st, Mark Watts qualified with a 47.06 second 400 meter time at the South Alabama Invitational in April. The first round of the 400-meter dash starts at 6:45 p.m. 

Friday's events begin at 11 a.m. with junior Phoebe Dowson as the 29th seed competing in the women's discus throw. She qualified at the Jaguar Opener in March with a throw of 50.77m. At 3 p.m., Jan-Louw Kotze will participate in the men's discus throw. Kotze's school- and league-record-breaking distance of 59.72m was posted at the Sun Belt Championships and has him ranked 13th entering the meet. Half an hour later, Nick Farrell — seeded 44th — will participate in the men's pole vault after qualifying with a mark of 5.07m at the SBC Championships. 

Junior Matthew Dillon will be competing in the men's 110-meter hurdles as the 40th seed; Dillon qualified with a time of 14.20 seconds. The women's long jump is slated to start at 6 p.m. and will include sophomore Kaitlyn Beans, who is ranked at 36th with a 12.64m distance. Both Dillon and Beans earned their qualification at the Sun Belt Championships. The last event of the day is the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 8:30 p.m. and will include junior Patrick Rohr in the field; he is seeded 34th after recording an 8:55.79 time at the Mt. SAC Relays in April.    

The last day of competition on Saturday features only one event for the Jags: junior Christoph Graf will run in the 5,000 meters at 7:45 p.m. Seeded 31st, Graf qualified with a time of 14:06.43 at the Mt. SAC Relays.  

The top 12 finishers in each events will advance to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Championships June 10-13 in Eugene, Ore.

"The circumstances are a bit different but there is nothing easy about this meet," explained Brueske.  "This will be a very high level competition — and in some events it will be as tough as the NCAAs — but I think we have some athletes that if they just do what got them here it should be enough to advance."

Last season, both Beans and Frechou moved on to the NCAA Championships in their events.  Kotze has participated at the regional in each of his first two seasons with the program, while the only other Jaguars with NCAA postseason experience coming into the weekend are Farrell (2013) and Rohr (2014).

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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