Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Last Chance Qualifier
Three Saluki Hurdlers Improve Times at Last Chance Qualifier
03/06/2004 | 12:00:00 | Track and Field
March 6, 2004
By Josh Magill
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Though it may not be the time that gets any of them accepted into the 2004 NCAA Indoor National Track and Field Championships, all three Southern Illinois University hurdlers can say they provisionally qualified.
Senior women's hurdler Korto Dunbar and junior men's hurdlers Emmanuel Daux and Anthony Acklin all surpassed the provisionally qualifying mark in the 60-meter hurdles at the Last Chance Qualifier Saturday.
The meet, hosted by Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, gave many athletes in the Midwest that one final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA championships or improve their possibility of being accepted by bettering their time or mark in an event.
Dunbar, who posted her best time of the season of 8.45 at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships, matched that time in the preliminaries at the Last Chance. After making it to the 60-meter hurdle finals, Dunbar just passed the NCAA provisional mark (8.43) with a time of 8.42.
Junior college (Wallace State) running mates Daux and Acklin had different priorities for the meet, but both had the same final goal of making the national championships.
Daux provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet last week at the MVC championships, but was hoping to improve his time in the hurdles enough to be accepted. Daux bettered his previous time of 7.92 by two hundredths of a second, posting a 7.90 in the prelims. Acklin ran a time of 8.04, but both athletes ran well enough to move on to the semifinals.
The semifinal round is where Acklin showed he had what it took to provisionally qualify for the NCAA national meet. He ran a time of 7.92, matching his teammate, Daux. The time surpassed the provisional mark by four hundredths of a second. Both moved on to the finals.
The duo posted times of 7.95 (Daux) and 8.02 (Acklin) in the final round. Daux's time of 7.95 matched the NCAA mark.
With more than 30 athletes in the country having better times than SIU's hurdlers, the three Salukis' chances of being accepted to the NCAA national championships are limited.
The national meet will take place March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark. Results can be found at www.ncaa.com.
