Jessie Rowland Aims To Qualify On Saturday For NCAA Championships

Bowling Green State University sophomore thrower Jessie Rowland will compete for a spot in the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday (March 5) when she travels to Blacksburg, Va. for the Virginia Tech Final Qualifier.

Rowland captured the 2011 Mid-American Conference indoor weight throw championship on Friday, Feb. 25 by achieving a distance of 19.45 (63-09.75).  The throw broke the BGSU record in the event and eclipsed her own personal record by six feet.

The Germantown, Ohio native currently ranks 30th among all NCAA Division I athletes in the weight throw event.  If she can notch a throw of 21.00 meters, she will automatically qualify for the championship meet, hosted by Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas on the 11th and 12th of March.

If Rowland does not automatically qualify, she can still earn an at-large berth.  The NCAA had three automatic weight throw qualifiers for the 2010 indoor championship meet and gave an additional 14 at-large spots for a total of 17 championship competitors.

This year, the athlete ranked 17th has a toss of 19.92 meters (65-04.25) to her name.  Thus, Rowland would need an improvement of just over one-and-a-half feet to eclipse this mark.  Of course, that target distance might rise given the results of other athletes also competing at final qualifiers this weekend.

Rowland's event is tentatively scheduled for around 3:00 p.m., following the men's and women's shot put and the men's weight throw.  Those events will begin at noon.  Live results can be obtained by clicking HERE.  The event result will also be reported at BGSUFalcons.com as soon as it is available.

The BGSU women's track and field team is looking for their first NCAA indoor championship participant since Stephanie Heldt qualified in 2001.  Kerri McClung (2005) was the Falcons' last qualifier for the NCAA outdoor championship.