May 18, 2008

Complete Results
North Central College Gregory Invitational (Naperville, Ill.)
Augustana Twilight (Rock Island, Ill.)
Cardinal Twilight (Louisville, Ky.)

MILWAUKEE - Freshman Tyler O'Brien became the sixth student-athlete from Marquette University to qualify for the 2008 NCAA Mid East Regional and reached a U.S. Junior National qualifying mark in the men's 200 meters Saturday. As the only Golden Eagle competing in the Cardinal Twilight meet in Louisville, Ky., O'Brien ran a school record time of 21.23 in team's last event before the regional meet.

"We're really excited about Tyler having such a strong freshman year breaking all the records that he has," said head coach Bert Rogers. "We're really looking forward to seeing just how well he stacks up against the competition at [NCAA] regionals and then also junior nationals later this summer, as well as the rest of the qualifiers."

O'Brien's lightning-fast time surpassed John Rydeski's mark of 21.24, an MU record that has stood since 1980, and Ralph Metcalfe's time off 21.34 (converted from yards to meters) ran in 1933.

He broke three school records during the indoor season - men's 300 meters (34.73), 200 meters (21.98) and 60 meters (6.94) -- and, along with Antonio Jones, Nick VanDeraa and Ray Bratchett, owns the men's outdoor 4x100-meter mark (41.57).

The MU freshman is the only Golden Eagle on the men's side to garner a spot in the Mid East Regional. He will join Jayne Grebinski (5,000 meters), Erynn James (high jump), Cassie Peller (1,500 meters), Carrie Schmid (pole vault) and Rachel Thiel (shot put) in Fayetteville, Ark., May 30-31. There they will be competing for a spot in the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship finals in June.

Earlier in the week, select Golden Eagles competed in meets at North Central and Augustana (Ill.) in hopes of hitting regional-qualifying marks, but to no avail. However, Thiel won the shot put (47-4.25) and Jessica Ehlen (169-11) won the hammer throw at Augustana on Friday, where Ehlen also established a new personal record in the discus (156-6). Peller (17:14.56) and Amanda Beggs (18:24.63) garnered PRs in the women's 5,000 meters at North Central on Thursday.