The Emory University track and field team took full advantage of its last opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships next week, as Alex Greenhouse recorded the team’s first automatic qualifying time of the season, and the women’s squad recorded seven provisional qualifying times, while competing at the Gregory Invitational, in Naperville, IL.

Greenhouse’s automatic qualifying time came in the 400-meter hurdles, where he won the event with a mark of 52.59 seconds, the second-fastest time in school history.  His time ranks him as the sixth-best Division III competitor in the event, heading into next week’s championships.

For the women, Mary Crystal Spence improved on her qualifying time in the 100-meter dash, recording a provisional mark of 12.13 seconds, good for a second-place finish in the finals of the event.  Her 100-meter dash time ranks her 18^th among Division III competitors this season.  Spence’s time was the second-fastest in school history, just two-hundredths of a second short of Jane Ukandu’s school record, set in 2007.  Spence also recorded a provisional qualifying time of 25.23 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

Sophomore Lauren Attiah recorded a pair of provisional distances in the jump events, finishing second in the triple jump with a mark of 11.71 meters, and fifth in the long jump with a distance of 5.56 meters.  Senior Brittany Donino ran a time of 14.60 seconds in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles, and a mark of 14.89 seconds in the finals for a third-place finish overall, both good for provisional marks.  Natalie Fenn rounded out Emory’s provisional performers, finishing ninth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:12.25.

With Emory’s final non-championship meet of the season in the books, Emory will now await the announcement of qualifying athletes for the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  While Greenhouse is the only current Emory athlete who has assured himself a spot in the finals with an automatic qualifying time in the 400-meter hurdles, Mary Crystal Spence (100-meter dash, 200-meter dash), Alix Dyer (400-meter dash), Brittany Donino (100-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles), Jasmine McCullough (100-meter hurdles), Rebecca Flink (3,000-meter steeplechase), Natalie Fenn (3,000-meter steeplechase), Lauren Attiah (long jump, triple jump) and the 4x100-meter relay team have all provisionally qualified for the women, while Alex Robin (800-meter run), Greg Decker (5,000-meter run, 10,000-meter run), Paul Winterhalter (10,000-meter run) and Nelson Nwannunu (triple jump) have provisionally qualified for the men.

The official selections for the NCAA Championships will be posted to raceberryjam.com at 3:00 PM on Sunday, May 23^rd.  The NCAA Division III Championships will begin on Thursday, May 27^th, and run through Saturday, May 29^th, at Baldwin Wallace College in Cleveland, OH.