Jenkins receives bid to NCAA national meet

Southeast Missouri State University's track and field program did not have a particularly impressive showing during last weekend's NCAA Mideast Regional in Baton Rouge, La.

But as expected, the NCAA announced Tuesday that junior Heather Jenkins qualified for nationals as an at-large entry in the discus based on her top performance during the regular season of 173 feet, 4 inches.

Jenkins, a Central High School graduate, will be seeded 22nd out of 29 competitors for the NCAA Championships , set for June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. It will be her second trip to nationals; she placed 15th in the discus as a freshman.

The top five finishers in each event at the regional meet automatically qualified for nationals. Southeast's top performance was turned in by Lindsay Zeiler, who was 11th in the finals of the 1,500-meters. She clocked 4:42.73 after running 4:28.24 in the preliminaries.

Jenkins was 17th in the discus (155-5) and 19th in the shot put (47-3 3/4).

In women's preliminaries, Brooke Woodruff was 18th in the 800 (2:08.35) and the 400 relay team (Natasha Fortenberry, LaQuita Andrews, Nyisha Porter, Rose Fulton) was 13th (46.23).

On the men's side, Jay Heddell placed 22nd in the discus (143-4).

In men's preliminaries, the 1,600 relay (Alonzo Nelson, Chaz Brown, Jared Tanz, Miles Smith) was 11th (3:10.54). Smith, the Indians' standout freshman, was disqualified in the preliminaries of the 400 due to a false start.