Kyle Merber, now a seasoned veteran as a sophomore at Columbia, goes for his first trip to the NCAA outdoor championships this weekend at the sprawling Eastern Regional meet in Greensboro, N.C. The two Regionals – the West meet will be at the University of Texas in Austin – run Thursday through Sunday, and all events except for the multi-events will be contested.

Charles Cox ran a lifetime best of 45.89 in the first round of the men’s 400 on Thursday at the NCAA Division I East Regional meet in Greensboro, N.C., moving on to the quarterfinal round. His twin brother, Chris, who attends Seton Hall, advanced in the event as well, running 46.37, while Charles’s teammate at North Carolina, freshman Clayton Parros, joined them, advancing on time in 46.60.

Five members of the NYU track team – four distance runners and a quartermiler – are headed to the NCAA Division III championships, to be held beginning Thursday at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

Mychael Fabio has qualified for the NCAA Division II national championships this weekend. He will run the 400 for Adelphi, thanks to his season’s best of 47.09. The meet will be Thursday through Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. Fabio, a sophomore, graduated from Walt Whitman H.S. on Long Island.

Liam Boylan-Pett, the former Heps champion for Columbia, and Rob Novak, a star in the 800 for Seton Hall, ran lifetime bests Saturday night in the 1,500 in a meet in the USATF High-Performance meet at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Five years after setting a national high school record, Shaquan Brown is finally headed to an NCAA championships. He is scheduled to run the 400 at this weekend’s Div. III nationals, Friday and Saturday at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., for Coach Mike Jackson’s Ramapo College team, of Mahwah, N.J.

Amber Campbell took over the world lead for the 2010 indoor season in the women’s weight throw Friday afternoon in a big weekend of throwing at the Armory.

Texas A&M, NCAA national  champions last spring for men and women, returns to the Armory for the 2010 New Balance Collegiate Invitational Feb. 5-6. The Aggies, coached by Pat Henry, were women’s team champions at last year’s NB meet as well. Baylor won the men’s.

The NYU men’s cross country team has become a team to be reckoned with nationally, and the Violets will make their fourth trip in a row to the NCAA Division III nationals this Saturday morning at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. For the first time, they will also be joined by their women’s team.

The preseason rankings are out and, no surprise, Oregon and Washington, those Pacific Northwest rivals, are favored to repeat as national champions.

NYU tries to get back on top, and Iona aims for the top, as another college cross country season gets underway in New York.

PHOTO BY VICTOR SAILER, PHOTORUN.NET

EUGENE, Ore. – Marquise Goodwin of Rowlett, Texas, broke the 20-year-old national high school record in the long jump on Saturday, jumping 26-10 in the Seniors competition of the USATF Championships at Hayward Field.

EUGENE, Ore. – Curtis Beach set his third national decathlon record in three months, scoring 7,599 points to win the USATF Juniors championship here at the University of Oregon on Friday.

Beach, a recent graduate of Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico, had second-day performances of 14.64w in the 39” high hurdles, 124-2 with the Junior (1.75k) discus, 15-0 ¾ in the pole vault, a subpar 127-10 in the javelin, and a record-setting 4:07.85 in the 1,500 meters.

Curtis Beach, the decathlon wunderkind from New Mexico, goes for another decathlon record when the U.S. Juniors Championships open on Thursday morning at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Curtis Beach, the decathlon wunderkind from New Mexico, goes for another decathlon record when the U.S. Juniors Championships open on Thursday morning at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Jake Freeman, long a bridesmaid, goes for his first-ever national championship in the men’s hammer at the USATF meet this weekend in Eugene, Ore.

            The Summit H.S. girls of Bend finished 4^th in the 4x800 Friday night at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., and ran 9:05.68, believed to be the fastest time ever run in the event by an Oregon girls team.

            EUGENE – Oregon’s track team won the events it expected to win – the men’s 800 and 1,500, the women’s 400 and javelin – on the concluding day of the NCAA West Regional meet Saturday afternoon at Hayward Field, setting up both squads for a shot at the nationa al team championships two weeks from now in Fayetteville, Ark.

Wilkins Center Opens

Wilkins Center Opens

Jesse Staub, Annie Hess and Greg Schultz all won national NAIA championships for Concordia in different throwing events on Friday in Edwardsville, Ill.